
• . « * > 











<, -o . . * ,6 V 



- ^ « 



"■1." "** ** ' 









^ 



<•. 










,Ho> 



C 




<- '•"•"•• A " 




■oV 










,0* *o 



A 1 - 










-■lo. 








*J- A 









■*- o 



!>-^ 

^ *« 




%> 



^ 






» i * * ' i. 



f i 










1' » ^ : - : ^°- 








,0,, 



*- ^o« 















", v* * IZwx<2 > "-fit 



K* * 



^' 



v v 



'■j . --fj 









4 


















o 
o 






,v 









VT ♦**> 









»., A 






o 






4 A 







V ► 



*> 












.0 












0^ c » - • - *o > 






^ . ■- '^0* 




*£- '^WKsS- » 




/">-<>«.'. 



ALTON TOWERS, 



ENGLAND, 



PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



R E MINI S C E N C E O F F O R E I G N T R A V E L 



Bv JOEL COOK, 

i rHOR or "a holiday rouR in europe," * brief summer rambles," etc. 




LD Mill \ I si I 



WITH NEARLY FIVE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS. 









- 



I'M II. A DE LPH1 \ 

PO R T I- R a n i) C O A T K S. 



y OFWA\ 



THE LIBRARY 
Of CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



Copyright 
By PORTER & COATES, 

1S82. 



Press of Henry B. Asiimf.ah, Philada. 



ELECTROTYPE!) I1Y WUSTOOIT & THOMSON, PlIILADA. 



JOHN WALTER, Esq., 

MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT F"R BERKSHIRE, 

AND 
PROPRIETOR OF THE LONDON TIMES. 

WHO HAS DONE SO MICH TO WELCOME AMERICANS 

WITH TRUE ENGLISH HOSPITALITY. 

AND TO 

GIVE ENGLISHMEN A MORE ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE OF. 

AND MORE INTIMATE RELATIONS WITH. 

THE UNITED STATES. 

vT ti i s tttork on Englanb, 

BY AN AMERICAN. 
IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. 



INTRODUCTION. 



NO land possesses greater attractions for the American tourist than Eng- 
land. It was the home of his forefathers ; its history is to a great extent 
the history of his own country ; and he is bound to it by the powerful ties of 
consanguinity, language, laws, and customs. When the American treads the 
busy London streets, threads the intricacies of the Liverpool docks and ship- 
ping, wanders along the green lanes of Devonshire, climbs Alnwick's castel- 
lated walls, or floats upon the placid bosom of the picturesque Wye, he seems 
almost as much at home as in his native land. But, apart from these con- 
siderations of common Anglo-Saxon paternity, no country in the world is 
more interesting to the intelligent traveller than England. The British system 
of entail, whatever may be our opinion of its political and economic merits, 
has built up vast estates and preserved the stately homes, renowned castles, 
and ivy-clad ruins of ancient and celebrated structures, to an extent and 
variety that no other land can show. The remains of the abbeys, castles, 
churches, and ancient fortresses in England and Wales that war and time 
together have crumbled and scarred tell the historv of centuries, while count- 
less legends of the olden time are revived as the tourist passes them in 
review. England, too, has other charms than these. British scenery, though 
not always equal in sublimity and grandeur to that displayed in many parts 
of our own country, is exceedingly beautiful, and has always been a fruitful 
theme of song and story. 

" The splendor falls on castle-walls 
And snowy summits old in story : 
The long light shakes across the lakes, 
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.' 

Yet there are few satisfactory and comprehensive books about this land 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

that is so full of renowned memorials of the past and so generously gifted by 
Nature. Such books as there are either cover a few counties or are devoted 
only to local description, or else are merely guide-books. The present work 
is believed to be the first attempt to give in attractive form a hook which will 
serve not only as a guide to those about visiting England and Wales, but also 
as an agreeable reminiscence to others, who will find that its pages treat of 
familiar scenes. It would be impossible to describe everything within the brief 
compass of a single hook, but it is believed that nearly all the more prominent 
places in England and Wales are included, with enough of their history and 
legend to make the description interesting. The artist's pencil has also been 
called into requisition, and the four hundred and eighty-seven illustrations will 
give an idea, such .is no words can convey, oi the attractions England presents 
to the tourist. 

The work has been arranged in eight tours, with Liverpool and London as 
the two starting-points, and each route following the lines upon which the 
sightseer generally advances in the respective directions taken. Such is 
probably the most convenient form for the travelling reader, as tin- author 
has found from experience, while a comprehensive index will make reference 
easy to different localities and persons. Without further introduction it is 
presented to the public, in the confident belief that the interest developed 
in its subject will excuse any shortcomings that may be found in its pages. 
Phil \ i >i i phi \. fitly, i SS;. 



CONTENTS. 



LIVERPOOL, WESTWARD TO THE WELSH COAST 

PACE 

Liverpool — Birkenhead— Knowsley Hall — Chester — Cheshire — Eaton Hall — Hawarden Castle — Bidslon — Congle 
ton — Beeston Castle — The river Dee — Llangollen — Valle-Crucis Abbey — Dinas Bran — Wynnstay — Pont 
Cysylltau — Chirk Castle— Bangor-ys-Coed — Holt — Wrexham — The Sands o' Dee — North Wales — Flint Cas- 
tle — Rhuddlan Castle — Mold — Denbigh— St. Asaph — Holywell — Powys Castle— The Menai Strait — Anglesea 
— Beaumaris Castle — Bangor — Penrhyn Castle — Plas Newydd Caernarvon Castle — Ancient Segontium — 
Conway Castle — Bettws-y-Coed — Mount Snowdon — Port Madoc — Coast of Merioneth — Barmouth — St. 
Patrick's Causeway — Mawddach Vale — Cader Idris — Dolgelly — Bala Lake — Aberystwith — Harlech Castle 
—Holyhead '7 



II. 

LIVERPOOL, NORTHWARD TO THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 

Lancashire — Warrington — Manchester — Furness Abbey — The Kibble — Stonyhurst — Lancaster Castle — Isle "t 
Man — Castletown — Rushen Castle — Peele Castle — The Lake Country — Windermere — Lodore Fall — Derwent 
water — Keswick — Greta Hall — Southey, Wordsworth, and Coleridge — Skiddaw — The Border Castles — 
Kendal Castle — Brougham Hall — The Solway — Carlisle Castle — Scaleby Castle — Naworth — Lord William 
Howard 51 

III. 
LIVERPOOL. THROUGH THE MIDLAND COUNTIES, TO LONDON. 

The Peak of Derbyshire— Castleton — Bess of Hardwicke — Hardwicke Hall — Bolsover Castle —The Wye and 
the Derwent — Buxton — Bakewell — Haddon Hall — The King of the Peak — Dorothy Vernon — Rowsley — 
The Peacock Inn — Chatsworth — The Victoria Regia — Matlock — Dovedale — Beauchief Abbey — Stafford 
Castle — Trentham Hall — Tamworth — Tutbury Castle — (hartley Castle — Alton Towers — Shrewsbury Castle 
— Bridgenorth — Wenlock Abbey — Ludlow Castle — The Feathers Inn — Lichfield Cathedral — Dr. Samuel 
Johnson — Coventry — Lady Godiva and Peeping Tom — Belvoir Castle — Charnwood Forest — Groby and Brad- 
gate — Elizabeth Widvile and Lady Jane Grey — Ulverscrofl Priory — Grace Dieu Abbey — Ashby de la Zouche 
— Langley Priory — Leicester Abbey and Castle — Bosworth Field — Edgehill — Naseby — The Land of Shake 
spL are — Stratford -on- A von — Warwick — Kenil worth — Birmingham — Boulton and Watt — Fotheringhay Castle 
— Holmby House — Bedford Castle — John Bunyan — Wobum Abbey and the Russells — Stowe — Whaddon 

Hall — Great Hampden — Creslow House 70 

7 



cS ( ONTENTS. 

IV. 
THE RIVER THAMES AND LONDON. 

PAr.E 

The Thames Head — Cotswold Hills— Seven Springs— Cirencester — Cheltenham — Sudeley Castle — Chavenage — 
Shifford - Lechlade Stanton Harcourt— Cumnor Hall — Fair Rosamond— Godstow Nunnery— Oxford — Ox- 
ford Colleges Christ rimr.li Corpus Christi — Merton — Oriel — All Souls — University— Queen's — Magdalen 
— Brasenose — New College -Radcliffe Library — Bodleian Library — Lincoln Exeter — Wadham— Keble 
Trinity — Balliol — St. [ohn's —Pembroke — Oxford Churches — ( (xford < lastle — Carfax < londuit— Banbury- 
Broughton Castle Woodstock Marlborough— Blenheim— Minster Lovel — Bicester Eynsham Abingdon 
Radley Bacon, Rich, and Holt — Clifton- Hampden -Caversham— Reading — Maidenhead — Bisham Abbey 
— Vii ' "i Bray — Eton College— Windsor Castle — Magna Charts Island— Cowey Stakes— Ditton — Twick- 
enham — London Fire Monument— St. Paul's Cathedral -Westminster Abbey — The Tower — Lollards and 
Lambeth Bow Church— St. Bride's — Whitehall — Horse Guards — St. James Palace — Buckingham Palace 
— Kensington Palace — Houses of Parliament— Hyde Park — Marble Arch — Allien Memorial — South Ken- 
ton Museum — Royal Exchange — Bank of England — Mansion House — Inns of Court — British Museum 
— Some London Scenes -The Underground Railway -Holland House-— Greenwich — Tilbury Fort— The 
Thames Mouth 137 



V- 

LONDON, NORTHWARD TO THE TWEED. 

Harrow Si Vlbans — Verulam — Hatfield House— Lord Burleigh— Cassiobury—Knebworth — Greal Bed of Ware 
— The River Cam — Aiulley End — Saffron Walden— Newport — Nell Gwynne — Littlebury — Winstanley — Har- 
wich—Cambridge — Trinity and St. John's Colleges — Cains College — Trinity Hall — The Senate House — 
University Library — cine College — Great St. Mary's Church — King's College— Corpus Christi College — St. 
Catharine College Queens' College— The Pitt Press — Pembroke College — Peterhouse — Fitzwilliam Mu- 
seum Hobson's Conduit — Downing College — Emmanuel College— Christ's College — Sidney-Sussex College 
— The Round Church Magdalene College — Jesus College — Trumpington — The Fenland — Bury St. Ed 
munds — Hengrave Hall — Ely — Peterborough — Crowland Abbey -Guthlac- Norwich Castle and Cathedral — 
Stamford— Burghlej House -George Inn — 1 Irantham — Lincoln — Nottingham — Southwell— Sherwood Forest 

— Robin Hood ["heDukerie — Thoresby Hall — Clumber Park — Welbeck Abbey — Newstead Vbbe) —Newark 

— Hull — Wilberforce Beverle) -Sheffield— Wakefield — Leeds— Bolton Abbey — The Strid — Ripon Cathe- 
dral—Fountains Abbey — Studley Royal— Fountains Hall— York — Eboracum — York Minster — ( IlifTord's 
Tower — Castle Howard — Kirk ham Priory — Fl am borough Head— S< a 1 borough — Whitby Abbey — Durham 
Cathedral and Castle— St. Cuthbert — The Venerable Bede — Battle of Neville's Cross — Chester-le-Street — 
Lumlej Castli Newcastle-upon-Tyne — Hexham — Alnwick Castle — Hotspur an. 1 the Percies — St. Michael's 
Church — Hulne Priory — Ford Castle— Flodden Field — The Tweed — Berwick — Holy Isle — Lindisfame — 
Bamborough — Grace Hailing 224 



VI. 

LONDON WESTWARD 'TO MILFORD HAVEN. 

The Cotswolds — The River Severn — Gloucester — Berkeley Castle — New Inn — Gloucester Cathedral — Lampreys 
—Tewkesbury; its Mustard, Abbey, and Battle — Worcester; its Battle — Charles II. s Escape — Worcester 
Cathedral Hie Malvern Hills — Worcestershire Beacon Herefordshire Beacon — Great Malvern — St. Anne's 
Well— The River Wye Clifford Castle— Hereford Old Butcher's Row — Nell Gwynne's Birthplace — Ross 
—The Man of Ro R 1 I liurch and its Trees — Walton Castle— Goodrich Castle — Forest of Dean— Cold- 



CONTENTS. 



well — Symond's Vat — Tin: Dowards Monmouth — Kymin Hill — Raglan Castle — Redbrook — Si. Briard i as 
tie — Tintern Abbe) rhe Wyncliff — Wyntour's Leap — Chepstow Castle — The River Monnow — The Golden 
Valley — The Black Mountains — Pontrilas Court — Ewias Harold — Abbey Dure — The Scyrrid Vawr — Worm- 
ridge — Kilpeck — Oldcastle — Kentchurch — Grosmont — The Vale of Usk — Abergavenny — Llanthony Prior) 
Walter Savage Landor — Capel-y-Ffyn — New port— Penarlh Roads — Cardiff — The Rocking-Stone — Llandaff — 
Caerphilly Castle and its Leaning Tower — Swansea — The Mumbles — Oystermouth Castle — Neath Abbey — 
Caermarthen — Tenby — Manorbeer Castle— Golden Grove — Pembroke— Milford—1 laverfordwest — Milford 
Haven— Pictou Castle — Carew Castle 



VII. 

LONDON, SOUTH-WEST TO LAND'S END. 

Virginia Water — Sunninghill — Ascot — Wokingham — Bearwood— The London Times — White Horse Hill — Box 
Tunnel — Salisbury — Salisbury Plain — Old Sarum— Stonehenge — Amesbury — Wilton House— The Earls of 
Pembroke — Carpet-making — Bath — William Beck ford — Fonthill — Bristol — William Canynge — Chatterton— 
Clifton — Brandon Hill — Wells — The Mendips — Jocelyn — Beckington -Ralph of Shrewsbury— Thomas Ken 
— The Cheddar Cliffs — The Wookej Hole I he Black Down — 'Hie [sle of Avelon — Glastonbury — Weary- 
all Hill — Sedgemoor — The Isle of Athelney — Bridgewater — Oldmixon — Monmouth's Rebellion — Weston Zoy- 
land — King Alfred — Sherborne — Sir Walter Raleigh — The Coast of Dorset — Poole — Wareham — Isle of I'm 
beck — Corfe Castle — The Foreland — Swanage — St. Aldhelm's Head — Weymouth — Portland Isle and Bill — 
The Channel Islands — Jersey — Corbiere Promontory- Mounl Orgueil -Alderney— Guernsey — Castle Comet 
— The Southern Coast of Devon — Abbotsbury — Lyme Regis — Axminster — Sidmouth — Exmouth — Exeter — 
William, Prince ol Orange — Exeter Cathedral Bishop Trelawney — Dawlish — Teignmouth — Hope's Nose — ' 
Babbicombe Bay — Vnstis Cove — Torbay — Torquay — Brixham — Dartmoor — The River Dart — Totnes — Berry 
Pomeroy Castle — Dartmouth — The River Plym — The Dewerstone — Plympton Priory— Sir Joshua Reynolds 
— Catwater Haven — Plymouth— Stonehouse — Devonport — Eddystone Lighthouse — Tavistock Abbey— Buck- 
land Abbey — Lydford Castle — The Northern Coast of Devon — Exmoor — Minehead — Dunster — Dunkery 
Beacon — Porlock Bay — The River Lyn — Oare — Lorna Doone— Jan Ridd — I.ynton — Lynmouth — Castle 
Rock — The Devil's Cheese Ring — Combe Martin — Ilfracombe — Morte Point — Morthoe— Barnstable — Bide- 
ford — Clovelly — Lundy Island — Cornwall — Tintagel — Launceston — Liskeard — Fowey — Lizard Peninsula — 
Falmouth — Pendennis Castle — Helston — Mullyon Cove Smuggling — Kynance Cove The Post twice — Old 
Lizard Head — Polpeor— St. Michael's Mount — Penzance Pilchard Fishery — Penwith— Land's End ... 384 



VIII. 

LONDON, TO THE SOUTH COAST. 

The Surrey Side— The Chalk Downs— Guildford— The Hog's Back— Albury Down— Archbishop Abbot— St. 
Catharine's Chapel — St*. Martha's Chapel— Albury Park— John Evelyn— Henry Drummond — Aldershot 

Camp — Leith Hill— Redland's W 1— Holmwood Park— Dorking— Weller and the Marquis of Granby Inn— 

Deepdene— Betch worth Castle— The River Mole -Boxhill — The Fox and Hounds— The Denbies— Ranmore 
Common — Battle of Dorking — Wotton Church — Epsom — Reigate — Pierrepoinl House — Longfield — The 
Weald of Kent — Goudhurst — Bedgebury Park — Kilndown—Cranbrook— Bloody Baker's Prison — Sis 
singhurst— Bayham Abbey— Tunbridge Castle— Tunbridge Wells — Penshurst — Sir Philip Sidney— Hevei 
Castle— Anne Boleyn— Knole — Leeds Castle— Tenterden Steeple and the Goodwin Sands— Rochester — 
Gad's Hill— Chatham— Canterbury Cathedral— St. Thomas a Becket— Falstaff Inn— Isle of Thanet — Rams- 
gate— Margate— North Foreland— The Cinque Ports — Sandwich— Rutupia: Ebbsfleet— Goodwin Sands— 
Walmer Castle'— South Foreland — Dover — Shakespeare's Cliff— Folkestone — Hvthe — Romney — Dungeness 
— Rye— Winchelsea — Hastings — Pevensey — Hailsham— Hurstmonccux Castle— Beachy Head — Brighton— 



io 



CONTENTS. 



rheAl rhe South Downs Dichling Beacon-Newh, 8* ! Wiston Manor-Chanc on- 

• Rin * 'el Castle-Chichester-Selsey Bill-G 1 1- Big -Midhurst-Cow .ray- Dun ford 

louse Se.borne-Gilber. White; Lis book; his bouse, .*, and church-Greatham Church-Wnv 

, te , Th, N« Forest-Lyndhurst-Minstead Manor-Castle Malwood-Death of W.lham Rufus- 

Rufu ■, Stone-Beaulieu Abbey-Brockenhurst-Ring 1 I ydington -Christchurch Southampton-Net- 
ley Vbbey-Calshot Castle-The Solent-Portsea Island-Portsmoulh-Gosporl Sp.thead -The Isle of 

Wiehl High Down-Alum Baj Ya uth-Cowes-OsborneHouse-Ryde-Brad.ng-Sandown-Shank- 

linCl Borichurch-The Undercliff-Ventnor-Niton-St. Lawrence Church St. Catharme s Down- 

Blackgang Chine-Carisbrooke Castle- Newport-Freshwate/-Brixton-The Needles 4°3 




MAKKET-PLACE, PETERBOROUGH. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



I'AGE 

Alion Towers Frontispiece. 

The Old Mill, Selborne Title-Page. 

Market-place, Peterborough .... After Contents. 

The Pottergate, Alnwick 1 6 

Perch Rock Light 17 

St. George's Hall, Liverpool, 19 

Chester Cathedral, Exterior .... 21 

Chester Cathedral, Interior 21 

Julius Csesar's Tower, Chester 22 

Ancient Front, Chester 22 

God's Providence House, Chester 23 

Bishop Lloyd's Palace, Chester 23 

Old Lamb Row, Chester 23 

Stanley Mouse, Front, Chester 24 

Stanley House, Rear, Chester 24 

Phoenix Tower, Chester 25 

Water Tower, Chester 25 

Abbey Gale, Chester 26 

Ruins of St. John's Chapel, Chester 26 

Plas Newydd, Llangollen 28 

Ruins of Valle-Crucis Abbey 29 

Wynnstay 30 

Pont Cysylltau 30 

Wrexham Tower 31 

The Roodee, from the Railway-bridge, Chester ... 32 

The " Sands o' Dee" t,^ 

Menai Strait . . 36 

Beaumaris Castle ■ ■ ■ 37 

Bangor Cathedral 37 

Caernarvon Castle 39 

Conway Castle, from the Road to Llanrwst ... 40 

Falls of the Conway 41 

Swallow Falls 42 

Llanrwst Bridge 43 

Barmouth 44 

Barmouth Estuary -45 

Cader Idris, on the Taly-slyn Ascent 46 

Rhayadr y-Mawddach 46 

1 lolgelly 47 

Owen Glenduwer's Parliament House, Dolgelly ... 47 

Lower Bridge, Torrent Walk, Dolgelly 48 

Bala Lake 48 

Aberystwith 49 

Harlech Castle 50 

Old Market, Warrington . . 51 



Manchester Cathedral, from the South-east .... 53 

Assize Courts, Manchester 54 

Royal Exchange, Manchester '. 55 

Furness Abbey 56 

Castle Square, Lancaster .58 

Bradda Head, Isle of Man .... .... 59 

Kirk Bradden, Isle of Man 59 

Rhenass Waterfall, Isle of Man 60 

Castle Rushen, Isle of Man Ol 

Peele Castle, Isle of Man 63 

Glimpse of Derwentwater, from Scafell 64 

Falls of Lodore, Derwentwater . 65 

Road through the Cathedral Close, Carlisle . 68 

View on the Torrent Walk, Dolgelly 69 

Pevcril Castle, Castleton 71 

Hardwicke Hall 72 

Hardwicke Hall, Elizabethan Staircase . . . . . 73 

Bolsover Castle 74 

The Crescent, Buxton . . 75 

Bakewell Church 76 

Haddon Hall, from the Wye 77 

Iladdon Hall, Entrance to Banquet-hall 78 

Haddon Hall, the Terrace 79 

The Peacock Inn from the Road 81 

Chatsworth House, from the South-west ... 81 

Chatsworth House, Door to State Drawing-room . S2 

Chatsworth House, State Drawing-room S2 

Chatsworth House, State Bedroom ... ... 83 

Chatsworth House, the Sculpture-gallery 84 

Chatsworth House, Gateway to Stable 85 

High Tor, Matlock 85 

The Straits, Dovedale 86 

Banks of the Dove 86 

Tissington Spires, Dovedale 87 

Trentham Hall . . 89 

Trentham Hall — on the Terrace 90 

Shrewsbury Castle, from the Railway-station . . . . 93 
Head-quarters of Henry VII. on his Way to Bos- 
worth Field, Shrewsbury 94 

On Battlefield Road, Shrewsbury 94 

Bridgenorth, from near Oldbury 95 

Bridgenorth, Keep of the Castle 95 

Bridgenorth, House where Bishop Percy was born 00 

Lodge of Much Wenlock Abbey 96 

Wenlock 97 

II 



I 2 



L/ST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Ludlow Castle 

Ludlow Castle, Entrance to the Council-chamber . . 

The Feathers Hotel, Ludlow 

Lichfield Cathedral, West Front 

Lichfield Cathedral. Interior, looking West . . . . 

Lichfield Cathedral, Rear View 

Dr. fohnson's Birthplace, Lichfield . ...... 

Coventry Gateway 

Coventry 

Ruins of Bradgate House 

Ruins of Ulverscroft Priory 

Ruins of Grace Dieu Abbey 

Leicester Abbey 

Gateway, Newgate Street, Leicester 

Edgehill 

Edgehill.Mill at 

Church and Market hall. Market Harborough . . . 

Shakespeare's House, Stratford 

Anne Hatliaway's Cottage, Shottery 

Warwick Castle . . . . 

Leicester's Hospital, Warwick . 

Oblique Gables in Warwick 

Kenilworth Castle 

St. Martin's Church, Birmingham 

Aston Hall, Birmingham 

Aston Hall, the " Gallery of the Presence' . . . 

The Town-hall, Birmingham 

Elstow, Bedford 

Elstow Church 

Elstow Church, North Door 

Woburn Abbey, West Front 

Woburn Abbey, the Sculpture-gallery 

Woburn Abbey, Entrance to the Puzzle garden . . 

Thames Head 

Dovecote. Stanton Harcourl 

Cumnor Churchyard 

Godstow Nunnery 

Magdalen College, Oxford, from the Cherwell . . 

Magdalen College. Stone Pulpit 

Magdalen College, Bow Window 

Gable at St. Aldate's College, Oxford 

Dormer Window, Merton College, Oxford . 
Gateway of Christ Church College, Oxford . . . . 

Merton College Chapel, Oxford 

Merton College Gateway 

Oriel College, Oxford . . . . . . . 

Magdalen College Cloisters, Oxford 

Magdalen College, Founders' Tower 

Magdalen College 

New College, Oxford, from the Garden 

New College 

The Radcliffe Library, from the Quadrangle of Bra- 

senose, Oxford 

1 lining hall, Exeter College, Oxford 

Trinity College Chapel, Oxford 



AGE 

°s 

99 
oo 

01 
01 
02 
03 
"5 
06 
08 
09 
IO 
I I 
12 

•3 

15 
17 
18 

19 

20 

22 

22 
23 
24 
25 
26 

27 
3° 
3D 

3' 

32 
33 
34 
3S 
40 
41 
42 

43 
44 
44 
44 
44 
45 
46 
46 

47 
48 

49 
5° 
5> 
52 

52 
53 
53 



PAGE 

Window in St. John's College, Garden Front, Oxford 154 

Tower St. John's College, Oxford 154 

St. Mary the Virgin, from High Street, Oxford . 155 

All Saints, from High Street, Oxford ... 156 

Carfax Conduit 157 

Iffley Mill 157 

Iffley Church 158 

Cromwell's Parliament-house, Banbury . . . 159 

Berks and Wilts Canal 100 

Chaucer's lb. use, Woodstock 161 

Old Remains at Woodstock 162 

Blenheim Palace, from the Lake 163 

Bicester Priory ■ . . . . *b5 

Bicester Market r66 

Cross at Eynsham 166 

Entrance to Abingdon Abbey 167 

K. ul ley Church 16S 

The Thames at Clifton-Hampden ... ... 170 

Bray Church 171 

Eton College, from the Playing Fields . 173 

Eton College, from the Cricket-ground ... 173 

Windsor Castle, from the Brocas 174 

Windsor Castle Round Tower, West End 175 

Windsor Castle, Queen's Rooms in South-east Tower 176 
Windsor Castle, Interior of St. George's Chapel . . 177 

Magna Charta Island .... 178 

The Monument, London ... 180 

St. Paul's Cathedral, London . . . . 1S2 

St. Paul's Cathedral, South Side 183 

St. Paul's Cathedral, the Choir 183 

St. Paul's Cathedral, Wellington Monument . 1 S4 

Westminster Abbey, London 185 

Westminster Abbey, Cloisters of 186 

Westminster Abbey, Interior of Choir 1S7 

Westminster Abbey, King Henry VII.'s Chapei . . . iSS 

The Tower of London, Views in iqi 

The Church of St. Peter, on Tower Green ... 193 

The Lollards' Tower, Lambeth Palace, London . . 194 

St. Mary-le-Bow, London 195 

St. Bride's, Fleet Street, London 195 

Chapel Royal, Whitehall, London 196 

Chapel Royal, Interior of I Banqueting -hall 1 .... 197 
The Horse Guards, from the Parade-ground, London 198 

Gateway of St. James Palace, London 199 

Buckingham Palace, Garden Front, London .... 200 

Kensington Talace. West Front, London 201 

Victoria Tower, Houses of Parliament, London . . 203 

Interior of the House of Commons 204 

The Marble Arch, Hyde Park, London 205 

The Albert Memorial, Hyde Park 206 

Principal Entrance New Museum of Natural History, 

South Kensington, London 207 

Royal Exchange, London 208 

Bank of England, London 208 

Mansion House, London . . 209 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



13 



PACE 

The Law Courts, London 210 

Sir Paul Pinder's House, London 211 

Waterloo Bridge, London 212 

Schomberg House, Londou 213 

Statue of Sidney Herbert, Pall Mall, London .... 213 
Doorway, Beaconsfield Club, London ... ... 214 

Cavendish Square, London 214 

The " Bell Inn" at Edmonton . 215 

The "Old Tabard Inn," London 216 

Holland House, South Side . 217 

Holland House, Dining-Room 21S 

Holland House, the Dutch Garden 218 

Holland House, the Library 2 19 

Holland House, Rogers's Seat in the Dutch Garden . 219 
Greenwich Hospital, from the River . . ... 221 
London, from Greenwich Park ...... . 222 

St. Albans, from Verulam 225 

Old Wall at Verulam 226 

Monastery Gate, St. Albans 226 

The Tower of the Abbey, St. Albans 227 

Staircase to Watching Gallery, St. Albans . . . . 227 
Shrine ami Watching Gallery, St. Albans . . 22S 

Clock Tower, St. Albans .... 229 

Barnard's Heath . 229 

St. Michael's, Verulam . 230 

Queen Elizabeth's Oak, Hatfield 231 

Hatfield House 232 

Hatfield House, the Corridor ... 233 

View through Old Gateway, Hatfield . . 234 

Audley End, Western Front . 235 

Views in Saffron Walden 237 

Town-hall 

Church. 

Entrance lo tlie Town 

Jetties at Harwich 238 

Bridge, St. John's College, Cambridge ... . . 239 

Hall of Trinity College, Cambridge 241 

St. John's Chapel, Cambridge 242 

Back of Clare College, Cambridge . 244 

King's College Chapel — Interior — Cambridge . . 245 

King's College Chapel, Doorway of 246 

Scenes in Cambridge 247 

The Senate House. 

The Pitt Press. 

( treat St, Mary's. 

The Fitzwilliam Museum. 

I'lie Round Church. 

Gateway, lesus College, Cambridge . 249 

Hengrave Hall . 250 

Road leading to Ely Close 250 

Ely Cathedral, from the Railway Bridge 251 

Old Bin in Ely 252 

I lid Passage from Ely Street to Cathedral Ford. 

Entrance to Prior Crawdon's Chapel, 

Old Houses in High struct 

Peterborough Cathedral 253 

Peterborough Cathedral, Aisle and Choir 254 



East End of Crowland Abbey . , 255 

Norwich Castle 257 

Norwich Cathedral 258 

Norwich Cathedral — the Choir, looking East . . . 259 

Norwich Market-place 260 

Burghley House 261 

Lincoln Cathedral, from the South west , . . 264 
" Bits" from Lincoln 265 

The Cloisters. 
The Angel Choir 
'the High Bridge, 

Nottingham Castle 267 

Southwell Minster and Ruins of the Archbishop's 

Palace 268 

Southwell Minster, the Nave . 269 

Clumber I l.dl .... ... 271 

Welbeck Abbey .... 272 

Newark Castle, Front 274 

Newark Castle and Dungeon 275 

Newark Market-square 276 

Newark Church, looking from the North . . . 276 

The Humber at Hull .277 

House where Wilberforce was born, Hull 27S 

Beverley, Entrance-Gate 278 

Beverley, Market-square 279 

Minor House. Sheffield 280 

Entrance to the Cutlers' Hall, Sheffield 281 

Edward IV.'s Chapel, Wakefield Bridge 282 

Wakefield 2S3 

Briggate, Leeds, looking North .... . . 283 

St. John's Church, Leeds 284 

Bolton Abbey, Gateway in the Priory . . . . 286 

Bolton Abbey, the Churchyard . . 286 

The Strid . 287 

Ripon Minster 288 

Studley Royal Park 289 

Fountains Abbey, the Transept 290 

Fountains Abbey, Tower and Crypt . . 291 

Fountains Hall 292 

Richmond Coslle 293 

The Multangular Tower and Ruins of St. Mary's 

Abbey, York 294 

Micklegate Bar and the Red Tower, York . . . 297 

York Minster 298 

York Minster, the Choir 299 

York Minster, Tomb of Archbishop DeGrey . . 300 

Clifford's Tower. York 301 

The Shambles, York .... 302 

Castle Howard, South Front ... 303 

Castle Howard, the Obelisk 304 

Castle Howard, the Temple, with the Mausoleum in 

the distance 305 

Gateway, Kirkham Priory 306 

Scarborough Spa and Esplanade 308 

Scarborough, from the Sea 309 



'4 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Whitby Abbey 311 

Durham, General View of the Cathedra] and Castle . 312 

Durham Castle, Norman Doorway 313 

Durham Cathedral, from an old Homestead on the Wear. 315 

Durham Cathedral, the Nave 316 

Durham Cathedral, the Choir, looking West .... 317 
Durham Cathedral, the Galilee and Tomb of Bede . . 318 

Lumley Cattle 320 

Lumley Castle, Gateway from the Wall; 321 

I lexham 322 

Alnwick Castle, from the Lion Bridge 323 

Alnwick Castle, the Barbican Gate ^2^ 

Alnwick Castle, the Barbican 324 

Alnwick Castle, the Barbican, Eastern Angle .... 225 

Alnwick Castle, the Percy Bedstead 326 

Alnwick Castle, the Percy Cross 326 

Alnwick Castle, Constable's Tower 327 

Alnwick Castle, Earl Hugh's Tower 328 

Alnwick Castle, Draw-Well and Norman Gateway . 329 
Alnwick Castle. Gravestone in the Churchyard of St. 

Michael's and All Angels 329 

Alnwick Castle, Font Leclern, St. Michael's Church . 330 

llulne Priory, Porter's Lodge 331 

Ford Tower, overlooking Flodden 331 

The Cheviots, from Ford Castle 332 

Flodden, from the King's Bedchamber, Ford Castle . 333 

Ford Castle, the Crypt 335 

Grace Darling's Monument, Bamborough 336 

Gloucester Cathedral, from the South east 33S 

Gloucester, the New Inn 340 

Gloucester Cathedral, the Monks' Lavatory . . . . 342 

Tewkesbury 343 

Tewkesbury Abbey ... 344 

Tewkesbury Abbey, Choir 345 

Worcester Cathedral, from the Severn . . .... 346 

Worcester Cathedral, Choir 348 

Ruins of the Guesten Hall, Worcester 349 

Close in Worcester 350 

St. Anne's Well, Malvern 352 

Butchers' Row, Hereford ^\ 

Out -house where Nell Gwynne was born, Hereford . . 353 

Hereford Cathedral 3^4 

Hereford Cathedral. Old Nave 355 

Ross Bridge 355 

Ross, House of the " Man of Ross'' 356 

Ross Market place 357 

Ro 1 hurch .... 35S 

Ross Church, the Tree, in 358 

Ruins of Goodrich Castle . 359 

Bend in the Wye 360 

Symond'sYat, the Wye . . 361 

Monmouth Bridge .... 363 

Monmouth Bridge, Gate on 363 

Raglan Castle 364 

Tintern Abbey, from the Highroad 365 



Chepstow Castle 

Pontrilas Court ' 

The Scyrrid Vawr 

Llanthony Priory, looking down the Nave 

Llanthony Priory, the South Transept 

Swansea, North Dock 

Swansea Castle 

The Mumbles 

Oystermouth Castle 

Neath Abbey, ruins 

Bearwood, Berkshire, Residence of John Walter, 

Esq., proprietor of London Times 

Salisbury Cathedral 

Salisbury Market . 

Stonehenge 

Wilton House 

Wilton House, Fireplace in Double Cube Room . . 

Wilton House, the Library 

Wilton House, the Library Window 

Bristol Cathedral 

Norman Doorway, College Green, Bristol 

Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol 

Wells Cathedral, from the Bishop's Garden 

Wells Cathedral, from the Swan Pool 

Wells Cathedral, View under Central Tower . . . . 

Wells, Ruins of the Old Banquet-Hall 

Entrance to the Cheddar Cliffs, Wells 

High Rocks at Cheddar, Wells 

Glastonbury Tribunal 

Sedgemoor, from Cock Hill 

Weston Zoyland Church 

The Isle of Alhelney 

Sherbourne 

Corfe Castle 

Studland Church 

Ruins of Old Cross in the Churchyard 

St. Aldhelm's Head 

Portland Isle 

Corbiere Lighthouse, Jersey 

View from Devil's Hole, Jersey 

Exeter Cathedral, West Front 

Exeter, Ruins of Rougcmont Castle 

Exeter, Old Houses in Cathedral Close 

Exeter Cathedral, from the North-west 

Exeter Cathedral, Bishop's Throne 

Exeter Cathedral, Minstrel Gallery 

Exeter, Guildhall 

Bn-bbicombe Bay 

Anstts Cove .... . . . 

Totnes, from the river 

Berry Pomeroy Castle 

A Bend of the Dart 

Dartmouth Castle 

The Dewerstone 

Vale of Bickleigh 



368 

37° 
37i 
373 
374 
377 
37« 
379 
380 

381 

3S5 
3S7 
388 

390 
392 
393 
393 
394 
398 
399 
400 
401 
402 
403 
404 
405 
406 
40S 
409 
410 
412 

413 
416 
418 
418 
419 
420 
422 
423 
425 
426 
426 

427 
42S 

429 

429 

43° 
43i 
432 
433 
434 
434 
435 
43" 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



15 



PAGE 

Plympton Priory, Old Doorway 437 

Mini-head 440 

Dunster 441 

On Porlock Moor 442 

Doone Valley ... 44 3 

Bay worthy Water 444 

Jan Ridd's Tree 444 

View on the East Lyn 445 

Castle Rock, Lynton 445 

Devil's Cheese-Ring, Lynton 446 

Tower on Beach, Lynmouth 447 

Ilfracombe 447 

Morte Point 449 

Bideford Bridge 450 

Clovelly, Main Street 450 

Clovelly. Old Houses on Beach 451 

Fowey Pier 452 

Pendennis Castle 454 

Mullyon Cove 455 

Lion Rock, with Mullyon in the distance 456 

Cave at Mullyon 456 

Pradenack Point 457 

KynanceCove 457 

The Post-Office, Kynance 458 

Polpeor 459 

Rocks near the Lizard 459 

St. Michael's Mount 460 

Old Market, Penzance 461 

Land's End 462 

High Street, Guildford 464 

Ruins of St. Catharine's Chapel 466 

Leith Hill 467 

Old Dovecote, Holmwood Park 468 

White Horse Inn, Dorking 469 

Pierrepoint House 472 

Longfield, East Sheen 473 

Ruins of Sissinghurst 475 

Tunbridge Castle 476 

Penshurst Place 476 



PAGE 

Penshurst Church 477 

Hever Castle 478 

Leeds Castle, Gateway 478 

Rochester Castle 480 

Canterbury 481 

Canterbury, Falstaff Inn 483 

Sandwich, the Barbican 485 

Dover Castle, the Pharos 487 

Dover Castle, Saluting- Battery Gate 487 

Rye, Old Houses 488 

Hurstmonceux Castle .- 490 

Arundel Castle 494 

Ruins of Cowdray 494 

Selborne, Gilbert White's House 495 

Selbome, Gilbert White's Sun-Dial 496 

Selborne Church 396 

Selborne, Rocky Lane to Alton 497 

Selborne, Wishing-Stone 49S 

Greatham Church 499 

Winchester, Cardinal Beaufort's Gate and Brewery . 500 

New Forest, from Bramble Hill 502 

New Forest, Rufus's Stone 503 

New Forest, Brockenhurst Church 505 

Christchurch, the Priory from the Quay and Place Mills 506 

Christchurch 5°7 

Christchurch, Old Norman House and View from 

Priory 50S 

Portsmouth Point 510 

Portsmouth, H. M. S. "Victory" 511 

Cowes Harbor, Isle of Wight 512 

The Needles, from Alum Bay, Isle of Wight . . . .513 

Yarmouth, Isle of Wight 513 

Osborne House, from the Sea, Isle of Wight . . . .514 

Shanklin Chine, Isle of Wight 516 

The Undercliff, Isle of Wight 517 

Carisbrooke Castle, looking from Isle of Wight . . . 519 

Tennyson's House, Isle of Wight 521 

The Needles, Isle of Wight 522 




rm roTTi rg \ I \i \\\ i r 



England, Picturesque and Descriptive. 



i. 

LIVERPOOL WESTWARD TO THE WELSH COAST. 

Liverpool — Birkenhead — Knowsley Hall— Chester— Cheshire — Eaton Hall— Hawarden Castle — Bidston — 
Congleton — Beeston Castle— The river Dee — Llangollen— Yalle-Crucis Abbey — Dinas Bran— Wynn- 
stay— Pont Cysylltau— Chirk Castle — Bangor-ys-Coed — Holt— Wrexham — The Sands o' Dee— North 
Wales— Flint Castle— Rhuddlan Castle— Mold— Denbigh— St. Asaph— Holywell— Powys Castle— The 
Menai Strait— Anglesea— Beaumaris Castle— Bangor— Penrhyn Castle— Plas Newydd — Caernarvon 
Castle— Ancient Segontium— Conway Castle— Bettws-y-Coed— Mount Snowdon— Port Madoc— Coast 
of Merioneth— Barmouth— St. Patrick's Causeway— Mawddach Yale— Cader Idris— Dolgell) — Bala 
Lake — Aberysth with — Harlech Castle — Holyhead. 




T 



LIVERPOOL. 

HE American transatlantic 
tourist, after a week or more 
spent upon the ocean, is usually 
glad to again see the land. After 
skirting the bold Irish coast, and 
peeping into the pretty cove ot 
Cork, with Queenstown in the 
background, and passing the rocky 
headlands of Wales, the steamer 
that brings him from America care- 
fully enters the Mersey River. The 
shores are low but picturesque as the tourist moves along the estuary be- 
tween the coasts of Lancashire and Cheshire, and passes the great beacon 
standing up solitary and alone amid the waste of waters, the Perch Rock 
Light off New Brighton on the Cheshire side. Thus he comes to the world's 
greatest seaport — Liverpool — and the steamer finally drops her anchor be- 
tween the miles of docks that front the two cities, Liverpool on the left and 
Birkenhead on the right. 



THE PERCH ROCK LIGHT. 



Forests of masts loom up behind the great dock- 



1 8 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



walls, stretching- far away on either bank, while a fleet of arriving- or departing 
steamers is anchored in a long line in mid-channel. Odd-looking, low, black 
tugs, pouring out thick smoke from double funnels, move over the water, 
and one of them takes the passengers alongside the capacious structure a half 
mile long, built on pontoons, so it can rise and fall with the tides, and known 
as the Prince's Landing-Stage, where the customs officers perform their brief 
formalities and quickly let the visitor go ashore over the fine floating bridge 
into the city. 

At Liverpool most American travellers begin their view of England. It is 
the great city of ships and sailors and all that appertains to the sea, and its 
550,000 population are mainly employed in mercantile life and the myriad trades 
that serve the ship or deal in its cargo, lor fifteen thousand to twenty thousand 
of the largest vessels of modern commerce will enter the Liverpool docks in a 
year, and its merchants own 7,000,000 tonnage. Fronting these docks on the 
Liverpool side of the Mersey is the great sea-wall, over five miles long, behind 
which are enclosed 400 acres of water-surface in the various docks, tl at are 
bordered by sixteen miles' length of quays. On the Birkenhead side of the 
river there are ten miles of quays in the docks that extend for over two miles 
along the bank. These docks, which are made necessary to accommodate the 
enormous commerce, have cost over $50,000,000, and are the crowning glory 
ot Liverpool. They are filled with the ships of all nations, and huge storehouses 
line the quays, containing products from all parts ol the globe, yet chiefly the 
grain and cotton, provisions, tobacco, and lumber of America. Railways run 
along the inner border of the docks on a street between them and the town, 
and along their tracks horses draw the freight-cars, while double-decked pas- 
senger-cars also run upon them with broad wheels fitting the rails, yet capable 
of beine run off whenever the driver wishes to <jet ahead of the slowly-movingf 
freight-cars. Ordinary wagons move upon Strand street alongside, with horses 
of the largest siz.e drawing them, the huge growth of the Liverpool horses being 
commensurate with the immense trucks and vans to which these magnificent 
animals are harnessed. 

Liverpool is of great antiquity, but in the time of William the Conqueror 
was only a fishing-village. Liverpool Castle, long since demolished, was a 
fortress eight hundred years ago, and afterward the rival families of Moliner.x 
and Stanley contended for the master)' of the place. It was a town of slow 
growth, however, and did not attain lull civic dignity till the time of Charles I. 
It was within two hundred years that it became a seaport of any note. 
The first dock was opened in 1 699, and strangely enough it was the African 
slave-trade that gave the Liverpool merchants their original start. The port 



LIVERPOOL. 



19 



sent out its first slave-ship in 1709, and in 1753 had eighty-eight ships engaged 
in the slave-trade, which carried over twenty-live thousand slaves from Africa 
to the New World that year. Slave-auctions were frequent in Liverpool, and 
one of the streets where these sales were effected was nicknamed " Negro 
street." The agitation for the abolition of the trade was carried on a long 
time before Liverpool submitted, and then privateering came prominently out 
as the lucrative business a hundred years ago during the French wars, that 
brought Liverpool great wealth. Next followed the development of trade 
with the East Indies, and finally the trade with America has grown to such 
enormous proportions in the present century as to eclipse all other special 
branches ot Liverpool commerce, large as some of them are. This has made 
many princely fortunes for the merchants and shipowners, and their wealth has 
been liberally expended in beautifying their city. It has in recent years had 
very rapid growth, and has greatly increased its architectural adornments. 
Most amazing has been this advancement since the time in the last century 
when the mayor and corporation entertained Prince William of Gloucester 
at dinner, and, pleased at the appetite he developed, one of them called out, 
" Eat away, Your 
Royal Highness; 
there's plenty more 
in the kitchen !" 
The mayor was 
lonas Bold, and af- 
terwards, taking the 
prince to church, 
they were astonish- 
ed to find that the 
preacher had taken 
for his text the 
words, " Behold, a 
greater than Jonas 
is here." ST - george's hall. 

Liverpool has several fine buildings. Its Custom House is a large Ionic 
structure of chaste design, with a tall dome that can be seen from afar, and 
richly decorated within. The Town Hall and the Exchange buildings make 
up the four sides of an enclosed quadrangle paved with broad flagstones. 
Here, around the attractive Nelson monument in the centre, the merchants 
meet and transact their business. The chief public building is St. George's 
Hall, an imposing edifice, surrounded with columns and raised high above one 




20 ENGLA.XD, riCTrRESOUE AXD DESCRIPTIIF. 



side of an open square, and costing 52,000,000 to build. It is a Corinthian 
building, having at one end the Great Hall, one hundred and sixty-nine feet 
long, where public meetings are held, and court-rooms at the other end. 
Statues of Robert Peel, Gladstone, and Stephenson, with other great men, 
adorn the Hall. Sir William Brown, who amassed a princely fortune in Liver- 
pool, has presented the city with a splendid free library and museum, which 
stands in a magnificent position on Shaw's Brow. Many of the streets are 
lined with stately edifices, public and private, and most of these avenues diverge 
from the square fronting St. George's Hall, opposite which is the fine station 
of the London and North-western Railway, which, as is the railroad custom in 
England, is also a large hotel. The suburbs of Liverpool are filled for a wide 
circuit with elegant rural homes and surrounding ornamental grounds, where 
the opulent merchants live. They are generally bordered with high stone 
walls, interfering with the view, ami impressing the visitor strongly with the 
idea that an Englishman's house is his castle. Several pretty parks with orna- 
mental lakes among their hills are also in the suburbs. Yet it is the vast trade 
that is the glory of Liverpool, for it is but an epitome of England's commercial 
greatness, and is of comparatively modern growth. "All this," not long ago 
said Lord Erskine, speaking of the rapid advancement of Liverpool, "has been 
created by the industry and well-disciplined management of a handful of men 
since I was a boy." 

KNOWSLEY HALL. 

A few miles out of Liverpool is the village of Prescot. where Kemble the 
tragedian was born, and where the people at the present time are largely 
engaged in watchmaking. Xot far from Prescot is one of the famous homes 
of England — Knowsley Hall, the seat of the Stanleys and of the Earls of 
Derby for five hundred years. The park covers two thousand acres and is 
almost ten miles in circumference. The greater portion of the famous house 
was built in the time of George II. It is an extensive and magnificent struc- 
ture, and contains many art-treasures in its picture-gallery by Rembrandt, 
Rubens, Correggio, Teniers, Vandyke, Salvator Rosa, and others. The Stan- 
leys are one of the governing families of England, the last Earl of Derby 
having been premier in 1866, and the present earl having also been a cabinet 
minister. The crest of the Stanleys represents the Eagle and the Child, and 
is derived from the story of a remote ancestor who, cherishing an ardent desire 
for a male heir, and having only a daughter, contrived to have an infant con- 
veyed to the foot of a tree in the park frequented by an eagle. Here he and 
his lady, taking a walk, found the child as if by accident, and the lady, consider- 



THE ANCIENT CITY OF CHESTER. 



2\ 



ing it a gift from Heaven brought by the eagle and miraculously preserved, 
adopted the boy as her heir. From this time the crest was assumed, but we 
are told that the old knight's conscience smote him at the trick, and on his 
deathbed he bequeathed the chiei part of his fortune to the daughter, from 
whom are descended the present family. 



THE ANCIENT CITY OF CHESTER. 

Not far from Liverpool, and in the heart of Cheshire, we come to the small 
but famous river Dee and the old and very interesting city of Chester. It 
is built in the form of a quadrant, its four walls enclosing a plot about a half 
mile square. The walls, which form a promenade two miles around, over 
which every visitor should tramp ; the quaint gates and towers ; the " Rows," 




EXTERIOR. — CHESTER CATHEDRAL — INTERIOR. 



or arcades along the streets, which enable the sidewalks to pass under the 
upper stories of the houses by cutting away the first-floor front rooms ; and 
the many ancient buildings, — are all attractive. The Chester Cathedral is a 
venerable building of red sandstone, which comes down to us from the twelfth 
century, though it has recently been restored. It is constructed in the Perpen- 
dicular style of architecture, with a square and turret-surmounted central tower. 
This is the Cathedral of St. Werburgh, and besides other merits of the attrac- 
tive interior, the southern transept is most striking from its exceeding length. 



22 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



The choir is richly ornamented with carvings and fine woodwork, the Bishop's 

Throne having originally been a pedestal for the shrine of St. Werburgh. 

The cathedral contains several ancient 
tombs ol much interest, and the elab- 
orate Chapter Room, with its Early 
English windows and pillars, is much 
admired. In this gorgeous structure 
the word of God is preached from a 
Bible whose magnificently-bound cover 
is inlaid with precious stones and its 
markers adorned with pearls. The 
book is the Duke of Westminster's 
gift, that nobleman being the landlord 
of much ol Chester. In the nave of 
the cathedral are two English battle- 
flags that were at Bunker Hill. Ches- 
ter Castle, now used as a barrack for 
troops, has only one part of the ancient 
edifice left, called Julius Caesar's Tower, 
near which the Dee is spanned by a 
julius oesar's tower. f ine single-arch bridge. 

The quaintest part of this curious old city of 

Chester is no doubt the " Rows," above referred 

to. These arcades, which certainly form a capital 

shelter from the hot sun or rain, were, according 

to one authority, originally built as a refuge for 

the people in case of sudden attack by the Welsh; 

but according to others they originated with the 

Romans, and were used as the vestibules of the 

houses; and this seems to be the more popular 

theory with the townsfolk. Under the "Rows'' 

are shops of all sizes, and some of the buildings 

are grotesquely attractive, especially the curious 

one hearing the motto of safety from the plague, 

"God's providence is mine inheritance," stand- 
ing on Watergate street, and known as "God's 

Providence House;". and "Bishop Lloyd's Palace," 

which is ornamented with quaint wood-carvings. 

The "Old Lamb Row," where Randall Holme, ancient front. 





CHESTER. 









UUDS PROVIDENCE HOUSE. 



lilSHHI" LLOYDS PAI-ACE. 



the Chester antiquary, lived, stood by itself, obeying no rule of regularity, and 
was regarded as a nuisance two hundred years ago, though later it was highly 

prized. The city corpora- 
tion in 1670 ordered that 
"the nuisance erected by 
Randall Holme in his new 



building in Bridge street 
be taken down, as it annoys 
his neighbors, and hinders 
their prospect from their 
houses." But this law- 
seems to have been en- 
forced no more than many 
others are on either side 
of the ocean, for the " nui- 
sance " stood till 1 82 1 , when 
the greater part of it, the 
timbers having rotted, fell 
of its own accord. The "Dark Row" is the only one of these strange 
arcades that is closed from the light, for it forms a kind of tunnel through 
which the footwalk goes. Not far from this is the famous old "Stanley 
House," where one unfor- 
tunate Earl of Derby spent 
the last day before his ex- 
ecution in 1657 at Bolton. 
The carvings on the front 
of this house are very fine, 
and there is told in ref- 
erence to the mournful 
event that marks its his- 
tory the following story: 
Lieutenant Smith came 
from the governor of 
Chester to notify the con- 
demned earl to be ready 
for the journey to Bolton. 
The earl asked, "When old la jib row. 

would have trie go?" "To-morrow, about six in the morning," said Smith. 
" Well," replied the earl, " commend me to the governor, and tell him I shall 







24 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




THE STANLEY HOUSE, FRONT. 



be ready by that time." Then said Smith, " Doth your lordship know any 
friend or servant that would do the thing your lordship knows of? It would 

do well if you had a friend." 
The earl replied, " What do 
you mean ? to cut off my 
head ?" Smith said, " Yes, 
my lord, if you could have 
a friend." The earl an- 
swered, " Nay, sir, if those 
men that would have my 
head will not find one to 
cut it off, let it stand where 
it is." 

It is easy in this strange 
old city to carry back the 
imagination for centuries, for it preserves its connection with the past better 
perhaps than any other English town. The city holds the keys of the outlet 
of the Dee, which winds around it on two sides, and is practically one of the 
gates into Wales. Naturally, the Romans established a fortress here more 
than a thousand years ago, and made it the head-quarters of their twentieth 
legion, who impressed upon the town the formation of a Roman camp, which 
it bears to this day. The 
very name of Chester is 
derived from the Latin 
word for a camp. Many 
Roman fragments still re- 
main, the most notable be- 
ing the Hyptocaust. This 
was found in Watergate 
street about a century ago, 
together with a tessellated 
pavement. There have 
also been exhumed Ro- 
man altars, tombs, mo- 
saics, pottery and other 
similar relics. The city is 
built upon a sandstone rock, and this furnishes much of the building material, 
so that most of the edifices have their exteriors disintegrated by the elements, 
particularly the churches — a peculiarity that may have probably partly justified 




THE STANLEY HOUSE, REAR. 



CHESTER. 



25 




Dean Swift's epigram, written when his bile 
was stirred because a rainstorm had pre- 
vented some of the Chester clergy from 
dining with him : 

" Churches and clergy of this city 
Are very much akin : 
They're weather-beaten all without, 
And empty all within." 

The modernized suburbs of Chester, 
filled with busy factories, are extending 
beyond the walls over a larger surface 
than the ancient town itself. At the an- 
gles of the old walls stand the famous 
towers — the Phoenix Tower, Bonwaldes- 
thorne's Tower, Morgan's Mount, the 
Goblin Tower, and the Water Tower, 
while the eates in the walls are almost 



THE PHCEXIX TOWER. 



equally famous — the Eastgate, Northgate, 
Watergate, Bridgegate, Newgate, and 
Peppergate. The ancient Abbey of St. 
Mary had its site near the castle, and 
not far away are the picturesque ruins 
of St. John's Chapel, outside the walls. 
According to a local legend, its neigh- 
borhood had the honor of sheltering an 
illustrious fugitive. Harold, the Saxon 
king, we are told, did not fall at Hast- 
ings, but, escaping, spent the remainder 
of his life as a hermit, dwelling in a cell 
near this chapel and on a cliff alongside 
the Dee. The four streets leading from 
the gates at the middle of each side of 
the town come together in the centre 
at a place formerly known as the " Pen- 
tise," where was located the bull-ring at 
4 




THE WATER TOWER. 



26 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 













I which was anciently carried on the refining sport 
of "bull-baiting" while the mayor and corpora- 
tion, clad in their gowns of office, looked on ap- 
provingly. Prior to this sport beginning, we are 
told that solemn proclamation was made for " the 
safety of the king and the mayor of Chester " — 
that "if any man stands within twenty yards of 
the bull-ring, let him take what comes." Here 
stood also the stocks and pillory. Amid so 
much that is ancient and quaint, the new Town 
Hall, a beautiful structure recently erected, is 
naturally most attractive, its dedication to civic 
uses having been 



made by the present 
Prince ot Wales, who 
abbey gate. bears among many 

titles that of Pari of Chester. But this is about 
the onlv modern attraction this interesting city 
possesses. At an angle ot the walls are the "Dee 
Mills," as old as the Norman Conquest, and fa- 
mous in song as the place where the "jolly miller 
once lived on the Dee." Full of attractions within 
and without, it is difficult to tear one's self away 
from this quaint city, and therefore we will agree, 
at hast in one sense, with Dr. Johnson's blunt 
remark to a lady friend 




RUNS OF ST. JOHN S CHAPEL. 

I have come to Chester, madam, 1 cannot tell how. 



and far less can I tell how to get away irom it.' 



Cll ESHIRE. 

The county of Cheshire has other attractions. But a short distance from 
Chester, in the valley of the Dee, is Eaton Hall, the elaborate palace of the 
Duke of Westminster and one of the finest seats in England, situated in a 
park of eight hundred acres that extends to the walls of Chester. This palace 
has recently been almost entirely rebuilt and modernized, and is now the most 
spacious and splendid example of Revived Gothic architecture in England. The 
house contains many works of art — statues by Gibson, paintings by Rubens and 
others — and is full of the most costly and beautiful decorations and furniture, 
being essentially one of the show-houses of Britain. In the extensive gardens 
are a Roman altar found in Chester and a Greek altar brought from Delphi. 



CHESHIRE. 27 



At Hawarden Castle, seven miles from Chester, is the home of William E. 
Gladstone, and in its picturesque park are the ruins of the ancient castle, 
dating from the time of the Tudors, and from the keep of which there is a fine 
view of the Valley of the Dee. The ruins of Ewloe Castle, six hundred years 
old, are not far away, but so buried in foliage that they are difficult to find. 
Two miles from Chester is Hoole House, formerly Lady Broughton's, famous 
for its rockwork, a lawn of less than an acre exquisitely planted with clipped 
yews and other trees being surrounded by a rockery over forty feet high. In 
the Wirral or Western Cheshire are several attractive villages. At Bidston, 
west of Birkenhead and on the sea-coast, is the ancient house that was once 
the home of the unfortunate Earl of Derby, whose execution is mentioned 
above. Congleton, in Eastern Cheshire, stands on the Dane, in a lovely 
country, and is a good example of an old English country-town. Its Lion 
Inn is a fine specimen of the ancient black-and-white gabled hostelrie which 
novelists love so well to describe. At Nantwich is a curious old house with a 
heavy octagonal bow-window in the upper story overhanging a smaller lower 
one, telescope-fashion. The noble tower of Nantwich church rises above, and 
the building is in excellent preservation. 

Nearly in the centre of Cheshire is the stately fortress of Beeston Castle, 
standing on a sandstone rock rising some three hundred and sixty feet from 
the flat country. It was built nearly seven hundred years ago by an Earl of 
Cheshire, then just returned from the Crusades. Standing in an irregular 
court covering about five acres, its thick walls and deep ditch made it a place 
of much strength. It was ruined prior to the time of Henry VIII., having been 
long contended for and finally dismantled in the W 7 ars of the Roses. Being 
then rebuilt, it became a famous fortress in the Civil Wars, having been seized 
by the Roundheads, then surprised and taken by the Royalists, alternately 
besieged and defended afterward, and finally starved into surrender by the 
Parliamentary troops in 1645. This was King Charles's final struggle, though 
the castle did not succumb till after eiehteen weeks' sieye, and its defenders 
were forced to eat cats and rats to satisfy hunger, and were reduced to only 
sixty. Beeston Castle was then finally dismantled, and its ruins are now an 
attraction to the tourist. Lea Hall, an ancient and famous timbered mansion, 
surrounded by a moat, was situated about six miles from Chester, but the moat 
alone remains to show where it stood. Here lived Sir Hugh Calveley, one of 
Froissart's heroes, who was governor of Calais when it was held by the Eng- 
lish, and is buried under a sumptuous tomb in the church of the neighboring 
college of Bunbury, which he founded. His armed effigy surmounts the tomb, 
and the inscription says he died on St. George's Day, 1394. 



2S 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



THE RIVER DEE. 

Frequent reference has been made to the river Dee, the Deva of the Welsh, 
which is unquestionably one of the finest streams of Britain. It rises in the 
Arran Fowddwy, one of the chief Welsh mountains, nearly three thousand feet 
high, and after a winding course of about seventy miles falls into the Irish Sea. 
This renowned stream has been the theme of many a poet, and after expand- 
ing near its source into the beautiful Bala Lake, whose bewitching surroundings 
are nearly all described in polysyllabic and unpronounceable Welsh names, and 
are popular among artists and anglers, it flows through Edeirnim Vale, past 
Corwen. Here a pathway ascends to the eminence known as Glendower's 
Seat, with which tradition has closely knit the name of the Welsh hero, the 
close of whose marvellous career marked the termination of Welsh independ- 




TLAS NEWYDD, LLANGOLLEN. 



ence. Then the romantic Dee enters the far-famed Vallevof Llangollen, where 
tourists love to roam, and where lived the "Ladies of Llangollen." We are 
told that these two high-born dames had many lovers, but, rejecting all and 
enamored only of each other, Lady Butler and Miss Ponsonby, the latter sixteen 
years the junior of the former, determined on a life of celibacy. They eloped 
together from Ireland, were overtaken and brought back, and then a second 
time decamped — on this occasion in masquerade, the elder dressed as a peasant 



THE RIVER DEE. 



2 9 



and the younger as a smart groom in top-boots. Escaping pursuit, they settled 
in Llangollen in 1778 at the quaint little house called Plas Newydd, and lived 
there together for a half century. Their costume was extraordinary, for they 
appeared in public in blue riding-habits, men's neckcloths, and high hats, with 
their hair cropped short. They had antiquarian tastes, which led to the accumu- 
lation of a vast lot of old wood-carvings and stained glass, gathered from all 
parts of the world and worked into the fittings 
and adornment of their home. They were on 
excellent terms with all the neighbors, and the 
elder died in 1829, aged ninety, and the younger 
two years afterward, aged seventy-six. Their re- 
mains lie in Llangollen churchyard. 

Within this famous valley are the ruins of Valle- 
Crucis Abbey, the most picturesque abbey ruin 
in North Wales. An adjacent stone cross gave 
it the name six hundred years ago, when it was 
built by the great Madoc for the Cistercian monks. 
The ruins in some parts are now availed of for 
farm-houses. Fine ash trees bend over the ruined 
arches, ivy climbs the clustered columns, and the 
lancet windows with their delicate tracery are 

much admired. The remains consist of the m^mmmmmS 
church, abbot's lodgings, refectory, and dormi- RUINS OF valle-crucis abbey. 
tory. The church was cruciform, and is now nearly roofless, though the east 
and west ends and the southern transept are tolerably perfect, so that much of 
the abbey remains. It was occupied by the Cistercians, and was dedicated to 
the Virgin Mary. The ancient cross, of which the remains are still standing 
near by, is Eliseg's Pillar, erected in the seventh century as a memorial of that 
Welsh prince. It was one of the earliest lettered stones in Britain, standing 
originally about twelve feet high. From this cross came the name of Valle 
Crucis, which in the thirteenth century was given to the famous abbey. The 
great Madoc, who lived in the neighboring castle of Dinas Bran, built this 
abbey to atone for a life of violence. The ruins of his castle stand on a hill 
elevated about one thousand feet above the Dee. Bran in Welsh means crow, 
so that the English know it as Crow Castle. From its ruins there is a beautiful 
view over the 'Valley of Llangollen. Farther down the valley is the mansion 
of Wynnstay, in the midst of a large and richly wooded park, a circle of eight 
miles enclosing the superb domain, within which are herds of fallow-deer and 
many noble trees. The old mansion was burnt in 1858, and an imposing struc- 




3° 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




ture in Renaissance now occupies the 
site. Fine paintings adorn the walls by 
renowned artists, and the Dee foams 
over its rocky bed in a sequestered dell 
near the mansion. Memorial columns 
and tablets in the park mark notable men and events in the Wynn family, 
the chief being the Waterloo Tower, ninety feet high. Far away down 
the valley a noble aqueduct by Telford carries the Fllesmere Canal over the 
Dee — the Pont Cysylltau — supported on eighteen piers of masonry at an 
elevation ol one hundred 
and twenty-one feet, while 
a mile below is the still 
more imposing viaduct car- 
rying the Great Western 
Railway across. 

Not far distant is Chirk 
Castle, now the home of Mr. 
R. Myddelton Biddulph, a 
combination of a feudal fort- 
ress and a modern mansion. 
The ancient portion, still 
preserved, was built by Roger Mortimer, to whom Fdward I. granted the lord- 
ship of Chirk. It was a bone of contention during the Civil Wars, and when 




PONT CYSYLLTAU. 



THE RIVER DEE. 



il 



they were over, $150,000 were spent in repairing the great quadrangular fort- 
ress. It stands in a noble situation, and on a clear day portions of seventeen 
counties can be seen from the summit. Still following down the picturesque 
river, we come to Bangor ys-Coed, or " Bangor-in-the-Wood," in Flintshire, 
once the seat of a ia- 
mous monastery that 
disappeared twelve 
hundred years ago. 
Here a pretty bridge 
crosses the river, and a 
modern church is the 
most prominent struc- 
ture in the village. The 
old monastery is said 
to have been the home 
of twenty-four hun- 
dred monks, one half 
of whom were slain in 
a battle near Chester 
by the heathen king 
Ethelfrith, who after- 
wards sacked the mon- 
astery, but the Welsh 
soon gathered their 
forces again and took 
terrible vengeance. 
Many ancient coffins 
and Roman remains 
have been found here. 
The Dee now runs 
with swift current past 
Overton to the ancient 
town of Holt, whose 
charter is nearly five 
hundred years old, but 
whose importance is 
now much less than of yore. Holt belongs to the debatable Powisland, the 
strip of territory over which the English and Welsh fought for centuries. Holt 
was formerly known as Lyons, and was a Roman outpost of Chester. Edward 




WREXHAM TOWER. 



32 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



I. granted it to Earl Warren, who built Holt Castle, of which only a few quaint 
pictures now exist, though it was a renowned stronghold in its day. It was a 
five-sided structure with a tower on each corner, enclosing an ample court- 
yard. After standing several sieges in the Civil Wars of Cromwell's time, the 
battered castle was dismantled. 

The famous Wrexham Church, whose tower is regarded as one of the "seven 







THE ROODEE, FROM THE RAILWAY-BRIDGE. 



wonders of Wales," is three miles from Holt, and is four hundred years old. 
Few churches built as early as the reign of Henry VIII. can compare with this. 
It is dedicated to St. Giles, and statues of him and of twenty-nine other saints 
embellish niches in the tower. Alongside of St. (hies is the hind that nourished 
him in the desert. The bells of Wrexham peal melodiously over the valley, 
and in the vicarage the good bishop Heber wrote the favorite hymn, " From 
Greenland's Icj Mountains." Then the Pee flows on past the ducal palace of 
Eaton Hall, and encircles Chester, which has its race-course, "The Roodee " — 
where theyhold an annual contest in May for the 'Chester Cup" — enclosed by 



FLINT AND DENBIGH. 



a beautiful semicircle of the river. Then the Dee flows on through a straight 
channel for six miles to its estuary, which broadens among treacherous sands 
and flats between Flintshire and Cheshire, till it falls into the Irish Sea. Many 
are the tales of woe that are told of the "Sands o' Dec," along which the 
railway from Chester to Holyhead skirts the edge in Flintshire. Many a poor 




THE " SANDS ii 



girl, sent for the cattle wandering on these sands, has been lost in the mist that 
rises from the sea, and drowned by the quickly rushing waters. Kingsley has 
plaintively told the story in his mournful poem : 



' They rowed her in across the rolling foam — 
I he cruel, < rawling foam, 
llii' cruel, hungry foam — 
In her grave beside the sea ; 
But still the boatmen heal her call her cattle home 
Ai ross the Sands o' I tee." 



FLINT AND DENBIGH. 

Let us now journey westward from the Dee into Wales, coming first into 
Flintshire. The town of Flint, it is conjectured, was originally a Roman camp, 
from the design and the antiquities found there. Edward I., six hundred years 
ago, built Flint Castle upon an isolated rock in a marsh near the river, and 
after a checquered history it was dismantled in the seventeenth century. From 
the railway between Chester and Holyhead the ruins of this castle are visible 
on its low freestone rock; it is a square, with round towers at three ot the 
corners, and a massive keep at the other, formed like a double tower and 
detached from the main castle. This was the "dolorous castle" into which 
Richard II. was inveigled at the beginning of his imprisonment, which ended 
with abdication, and finally his death at Pomfret. The story is told that Richard 



,| / VGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 

had a fine greyhound al Flini Castle dial often caressed him, luu when the 
Duke of Lancaster came there the greyhound suddenly left Richard ami 
caressed the duke, who, nol knowing the dog, asked Richard what it meant. 
"Cousin," replied the king, "it means a great deal for you and very little for 
me. I understand l>\ ii that this greyhound pays his court to you as King oi 
I ngland, which you will surely be, and 1 shall Ik- deposed, for the natural 
instinct of the dog shows ii to him; keep him, dierefore, In your side." Lan 
caster treasured this, and paid attention to the dog, which would nevermore 
follow Richard, l>ut kepi by the side o! the Duke <>l Lancaster, "as was wit 
nessed," says the chronicler Froissart, "by thirty thousand men." 

Rhuddlan Castle, also in Flintshire, is a \^~o\ sandstone ruin ol striking appear 
ance, standing on the Clwyd River. When it was founded no one knows accu- 
rately, but it was rebuilt seven hundred years ago, and was dismantled, like 
mam other Welsh castles, in 1646. Ii was at Rhuddlan that Edward I. prom 
ised die Welsh "a native prince who never spoke a word ol English, and whose 
life and conversation no man could impugn;" ami die, promise he lulhlled to 
the letter by naming as the first English Prince of Wales his infant sun, then 
just born at Caernarvon Castle. Six massive towers flank the walls oi this 
famous eastle, ami are in tolerably lair preservation. Not far to the southward 
is the eminence known 1>\ the Welsh as " Yr-Wyddgrug," or "a lofty lull," 
and which the English call Mold. C*n this hill was a eastle of which little 
remains now Imt tracings ol the ditches, larches .\nA other trees peacefully 
groVing o\) the site ol the ancient stronghold. Oil toward Wrexham are 
the ruins of another castle, known as Caergwrle, or "the camp ol the giant 
legion." This was of Welsh origin, and commanded the entrance to the Vale 
ol Men; the English called it hope Castle. 

Adjoining Flintshire is Denbigh, with the quiet watering-place ol Abergele 

out on the Irish Sea. About two miles awa\ is St. Asaph, with its famous 

cathedral, having portions dating from the thirteenth century. The great 
castle of Denbigh, when in its lull glory, had fortifications one and a halt 
miles in circumference. It stood m) a steep hill at the county town, where 
scant) ruins now remain, consisting chiefly ol an immense gateway with 
remains of flanking towers. Above the entrance is a statue ol the Earl ol 
I incoln, its founder in the thirteenth century. Mis only son was drowned in 
the castle well, which so affected the lather that he did not finish the castle. 
Edward 11. gave Denbigh to Despenser; Leicester owned it in Elizabeth's 
time: (.diaries 11. dismantled it. I'iie ruins impress the \ i-^iior with the stu- 
pendous strength ol the immense walls ot this stronghold, while extensive 
passages ami dungeons have Keen explored beneath the surface lor lone dis 



THE MENA1 STR \IT. 35 

lames. In one chamber near the entrance tower, which had been walled u|>, 
a large amount ol gunpowder was found. At Holywell, now the second town 
in North Wales, is the shrine to which pilgrims have been going for many cen 
turies. At the foot oi a steep hill, from an aperture in the rock, there rushes 
forth a torrent ol water at the rate ol eighty loin- hogsheads a minute;; whether 
the season he wet or be dry, the sacred stream gushing forth from Si. Wini 
frede's Well varies but little, and around ii grows the fragrant moss known as 
Si. Winifrede's I lair. The spring has valuable medicinal virtues, and an ele 
miii dome covering il supports a chapel. The little building is an exquisite 
Gothic structure built by Henry VII. A second basin is provided, into which 
bathers may descend. The pilgrims to this holy well have of late years 
decreased in numbers; [ames II., who, we are told, "lost three kingdoms for 
a mass," visited this well in [686, and " received as a reward the undergarment 
worn l>y his great grandmother, Mars < |ueen of Scots, on the day of her exe 
cution." This miraculous spring gets its name from the pious virgin Winifrede. 
She having been seen by the Prince ol Wales, Caradoc, he was struck by her 
great beauty and attempted to carry her oil; she fled to the church, the prince 
pursuing, and, overtaking her, he in rage drew his sword and struck off her 
head; the severed head bounded through the church door and rolled to the 
foot ol the altar. On the spot where it rested a spring ol uncommon size 
burst forth. The pious priest took up the head, and at his prayer ii was united 
to the body, and the virgin, restored to life, lived in sanctity for fifteen years 
afterwards; miracles were wrought at her tomb; the spring proved another 
Pool of Bethesda, and to this day we are told that the votive crutches and 
chairs left by the cured remain hanging over St. Winifrede's Well. 

South ol Denbigh, in Montgomeryshire, are the ruins ol Montgomery Cas 
tie, long a frontier fortress ol Wales, around which many hot contests have 
raged; a fragment ol a lower and portions ol the walls are all that remain. 
Powys Castle is at Welsh Pool, and is still ] (reserved — a vri\ sandstone structure 
on a rocky elevation in a spacious and well-wooded park; Sir Robert Smirke 
has restored it. 

'Ill I. M EN A I STRAIT. 

Still journeying westward, we come to Caernarvonshire, and reach the 
remarkable estuary dividing the mainland from the island ol Anglesea, and 
known as the Menai Strait. This narrow stream, with its steeply-sloping 
banks and winding shores, looks more like a river than a strait, and n every 

where disi loses evidence ol the residence ol an almost pre-histOric people ill 

relics of nations that inhabited its banks before the invasion oi the Romans. 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



There arc hill-torts, sepulchral mounds, pillars ot stone, rude pottery, weapons 
of stone and bronze; and in that early day Mona itself, as Anglesea was called, 
was a sacred island. Here were fierce struggles between Roman and Briton, 
and Tacitus tells of the invasion of Mona by the Romans and the desperate 
conllicts that ensued as early as a. d. 60. The history of the strait is a story 




THE MKXAI STRAIT. 



of almost unending war for centuries, and renowned castles bearing the scars 
oi these conflicts keep watch and ward to this day. Beaumaris, Bangor, 
Caernarvon, and Conway castles still remain in partial ruin to remind us of 
the Welsh wars of centuries ago. On the Anglesea shore, at the northern 
entrance to the strait, is the picturesque ruin of Beaumaris Castle, built by 
Edward I. at a point where vessels could conveniently land. It stands on the 
lowlands, and a canal connects its ditch with the sea. It consists of a hexag- 
onal line of outer defences surrounding an inner square. Round towers 
flanked the outer walls, and the chapel within is quite well preserved. It has 
not had much place in history, and the neighboring town is now a peaceful 
watering-place. 



THE MEXAI STRAIT. 



Across the strait is Bangfor, a rather straggling town, with a cathedral that is 
not very old. We are told that its bishop once sold its peal of bells, and, going 




'mmm 









BEAl \I IRIS ' ASTLE. 



down to the shore to see them shipped away, was stricken blind as a punishment 
for the sacrilege. Of Bangor Castle, as it originally stood, but insignificant traces 
remain, but Lord Penrhyn has recently erected in the neighborhood the impos- 




B W'liOR CATHEDRAL. 



ing castle of Penryhn, a massive pile of dark limestone, in which the endeavor 
is made to combine a Norman feudal castle with a modern dwelling, though 
with only indifferent success, excepting in the expenditure involved. The 



38 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



roads from the great suspension-bridge across the strait lead on cither hand 
to Bangor and Beaumaris, although the route is rather circuitous. This bridge, 
crossing at the narrowest and most beautiful part of the strait, was long 
regarded as the greatest triumph ot bridge-engineering. It carried the Holy- 
head high-road across the strait, and was built by Telford. The bridge is five 
hundred and seventy-nine feet long, and stands one hundred feet above high- 
water mark ; it cost $600,000. Above the bridge the strait widens, and here, 
amid the swift-flowing currents, the famous whitebait are caught for the London 
epicures. Three-quarters ot a mile below, at another narrow place, the rail- 
wax- crosses the strait through Stephenson's Britannia tubular bridge, which is 
more useful than ornamental, the railway passing through two long rectangular 
iron tubes, supported on plain massive pillars. From a rock in the strait the 
central tower rises to a height of two hundred and thirty feet, and other towers 
art' built on each shore at a distance ot tour hundred and sixty feet trom the 
central one. Couchant lions carved in stone guard the bridge-portals at each 
end, and this famous viaduct cost over 52,500,000. A short distance below the 
Anglesea Column towers above a dark rock on the northern shore ot the strait. 
It was erected in honor of the first Marquis ot Anglesea, the gallant com- 
mander of the British light cavalry at Waterloo, where his leg was carried 
away in' one of the last French cannon-shots. For many years after the great 
victory he lived here, literally with "one foot in the grave." l'las Newydd, 
one and a half miles below, the Anglesea family residence, where the mar- 
quis lived, is a large and unattractive mansion, beautifully situated on the 
sloping shore. It has in the park two ancient sepulchral monuments ot great 
interest to the antiquarian. 

CAERNARVON AND CONWAY. 

As the famous strait widens below the bridges the shores are tamer, and we 
come to the famous Caernarvon Castle, the scene of many stirring military 
events, as it held the kev to the valleys of Snowdon, and behind it towers that 
famous peak, the highest mountain in Britain, whose summit rises to a height 
of 3590 feet. This great castle also commanded the south-western entrance 
to the strait, and near it the rapid little Sciont River flows into the sea. The 
ancient Britons had a fort here, and afterwards it was a Roman fortified camp, 
which gradually developed into the city of Segontium. The British name, from 
which the present one comes, was Caer-yn-Arvon — "the castle opposite to 
Mona." Segontium had the honor of being the birthplace of the Emperor 
Constantine, and many Roman remains still exist there. It was in 1 2S4, how- 
ever, that Edward I. began building the present castle, and it took thirty-nine 



CAERNARVON AND CONWAY. 



39 



years to complete. The castle plan is an irregular oval, with one side over- 
looking the strait. At the end nearest the sea, where the works come to a 
blunt point, is the famous Eagle Tower, which has eagles sculptured on the 
battlements. There are twelve towers altogether, and these, with the light- 
and dark-hued stone in the walls, give the castle a massive yet graceful aspect 
as it stands on the low ground at the mouth of the Sciont. Externally, the 
castle is in good preservation, but the inner buildings are partly destroyed, as 
is also the Queen's Gate, where Queen Eleanor is said to have entered before 
the first English Prince of Wales was born. A corridor, with loopholes con- 




AKKNAKYOX CASTL 



trived in the thickness of the walls, runs entirely around the castle, and from 
this archers could fight an approaching enemy. This great iortress has been 
called the "boast of North Wales" from its size and excellent position. It 
was last used for defence during the Civil Wars, having been a military strong- 
hold for nearly four centuries. Although Charles II. issued a warrant for its 
demolition, this was to a great extent disregarded. Prynne, the sturdy Puritan, 
was confined here in Charles I.'s time, and the first English Prince of Wales, 
afterwards the unfortunate Edward II., is said to have been born in a little dark 
room, only twelve by eight feet, in the Eagle Tower; when seventeen years of 
age the prince received the homage of the Welsh barons at Chester. The 
town of Caernarvon, notwithstanding its famous history and the possession ot 



4o 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



the greatest ruin in Wales, now derives its chief satisfaction from the lucrative 
but prosaic occupation of trading- in slates. 




( ONU AY i AM I i 



LANRWST. 



At the northern extremity of Caernarvon county, and projecting into the 
Irish Sea, is the promontory known as Great Orme's Head, and near it is the 
mouth of the Conway River. The railway to Holyhead crosses this river on a 
tubular bridge lour hundred feet long, ami runs almost under the ruins of Con- 
way Castle, another Welsh stronghold erected by Edward I. We are told that 
this despotic king, when he had completed the conquest of Wales, came to 
Conway, the shape of the town being something like a Welsh harp, and he 
ordered all the native bards to be put to death. Gray founded upon this his 
ode, "The liard," beginning — 

'• On a roi K \\ ho ;e 1' iftj brow 

Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming Rood, 
Robed in a sable garb of woe, 

With haggard eyes the poet stood." 



CAERNARVON AND CONWAY. 



4' 



This ode has so impressed die Conway folk that they have been at great pains 
to discover the exact spot where the despairing bard plunged into the river, 
and several enthusiastic persons have discovered the actual site. The castle 
stands upon a high rock, and its builder soon after its completion was besieged 
there by the Welsh, but before being starved into submission was relieved by 
the timely arrival of a fleet with provisions. It was in the hall of Conway Cas- 
tle that Richard II. signed his abdication. The castle was stormed and taken 
by Cromwell's troops in the Civil Wars, and we are told that all the Irish found 
in the garrison were tied in couples, back to back, and thrown into the river. 
The castle was not dismantled, but the townsfolk in their industrious quarrying 
of slates have undermined one of the towers, which, though kept up by the 
solidity of the surrounding masonry, is known as the " Broken Tower." There 
was none of the "bonus building" of modern times attempted in these pon- 
derous Welsh castles of the great King Edward. The ruins are an oblong 
square, standing on the edge of a steep rock washed on two sides by the 
river ; the embattled walls, partly covered by ivy, are twelve to fifteen feet 
thick, and are flanked by eight huge circular towers, each forty feet in diam- 
eter ; the interior is in partial ruin, but shows traces of its former magnificence; 
the stately hall is one hundred and thirty feet long. The same architect design- 
ed both Caernarvon and Conway. A fine suspension-bridge now crosses the 
river opposite the castle, its towers being built in harmony with the architecture 
of the place, so that the structure looks much like a drawbridge for the fort- 
ress. Although the Conway River 
was anciently a celebrated pearl-fish- 
ery, slate-making, as at Caernarvon, 
is now the chief industry of the town. 
There are many other historic 
places in Caernarvonshire, and also 
splendid bits ot rural and coast sce- 
nery, while the attractions for the 
angler as well as the artist are almost 
limitless. One of the prettiest places 
for sketching, as well as a spot where 
the fisherman's skill is often reward- 
ed, is Bettws-y-Coed. This pretty 
village, which derives its name from 
a religious establishment — " Bede- 
house in the Wood " — that was for- 
merly there, but long ago disappear- FALLS OF THF - conway. 



, • . -i' --"■ 



SV-. 




4- 



\, / IX/i, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



ed, is a favorite resort for explorations of the ravines leading down from Mount 
Snowdon, which town's among the clouds to the southward. Not far awaj are 
the attractive Falls of die Conway, and from a rock above them is a good view 
o\ tin- wonderful ra\ ine of Fors Noddyn, through which the river flows. Around 
it there is a noble assemblage of Mills an. 1 headlands. Here, joining with the 




-U U I ,'\\ 



Conway, comes thi another ravine the pretty Machno in a succession of 

sparkling cascades and rapids. Not far away is the wild and lovely valley of 
the l.ledr. another tributary of the Conway, which comes tumbling down a 
romantic fissure cut into the frowning sides of the mountain A: Dolwyddelan 



CAERNARVON AND CONIVA 1 '. 



i; 



a solitary tower is all that remains ol the castle, once commanding from its 
bold perch on the rocks the narrow pass in the: valley. It is at present a little 
village of slate-quarriers. The Llugwy is yet another attractive tributary oi 
thi' Conway, which boasts in its course the Rhayadr-y-Wenol, or the Swallow- 
ball. This, after a spell of rainy weather, is considered the finest cataract in 
Wales for the breadth ami volume ol the water that descends, though not for 
its height. This entire region is full ol charming scenery, and ol possibly what 




some may love even better, good trout-fishing. Following 

the Conway Valley still farther up, and crossing over the 
border into Denbigh, we come to the little market-town ol 
Llanrwst. It contains two attractive churches, the older 
nnv containing many curious monuments ami some good 
carvings, the latter having been brought from Maenant 
Abbey. But the chief curiosity of this little Welsh settlement is the bridge 
crossing the Conway. It was constructed by Inigo Jones, and is a three-arched 
stone bridge, which has the strange peculiarity that by pushing a particular 
portion of the parapet it can be made to vibrate from one end to the other. 
Gwydyr Mouse, the seat of Lord Willoughby de Eresby, is in the neighborhood, 
a small part of the original mansion built in 1555 remaining. Near Trefriw 
lived Taliesin, the lather of Welsh poetry, and a monument erected by that 
nobleman on the river-bank perpetuates his memory. 

The recollection anion- the Welsh of the life and exploits of the great 
chieftain of former times. Madoc, is held very dear in Caernarvonshire, and is 



44 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



preserved not only in many legends, but also in the thriving and pleasant little 
seaport known as Port Madoc, which has grown up out of the slate-trade. Its 
wharf is a wilderness of slates, and much of the land in the neighborhood has 
been recovered from the sea. The geology as well as the scenery here is an 
interesting study. In fact, the whole Caernarvon coast, which stretches away 
to the south-west in the long peninsula that forms Cardigan Bay, is full of pleas- 
ant and attractive locations for student and tourist, and entwined around all are 
weird legends of the heroes and doings of the mystical days of the dim past, 
when Briton and Roman contended for the mastery of this historic region. 



THE COAST OF MERIONETH. 

Let us make a brief excursion south of Mount Snowdon, alono- the coast of 
the pastoral county of Merioneth, where Nature has put many crags and stones 




BARMOUTH. 



and a little gold and wheat, but where the people's best reliance is their flocks. 
At the place where the Mawddach joins the sea is Barmouth, where a fishing 
village has of late years bloomed into a fashionable watering-place. The 
houses are built on a strip of sand and the precipitous hillside beyond, and 



THE COAST OF MERIONETH. 



45 



the cottages are perched wherever they can conveniently hold on to the crags, 
the devious pathways and flights of steps leading up to them presenting a 
quaint aspect. The bends of the Mawddach, as it goes inland among the-hills, 
present miles of unique scenery, the great walls of Cader Idris closing the 
background. Several hilltops in the neighborhood contain fortifications, and 
are marked by the old tombs known as cromlechs and Druids' altars. On 
the sea-coast curious reels project, the chief of them being St. Patrick's Cause- 
way. The legend tells us that a Welsh chieftain fifteen hundred years ago con- 
structed these reefs to protect the lowlands from the incursions of the sea, and 




BARMOUTH ESTUARY. 

on the lands thus reclaimed there stood no less than twelve fortified Welsh 
cities. But, unfortunately, one stormy night the guardian of the embankments 
got drunk, and, slumbering at the critical moment, the waves rushed in, sweep- 
ing all before them. In the morning, where had before been fortified cities 
and a vast population, there was only a waste of waters. St. Patrick, we are 
told, used his causeway to bear him dryshod as far as possible when lie walked 
the waters to Ireland. 

Let us penetrate into the interior by going up the romantic valley of the 
Mawddach and viewing the frowning sides of the chief Merioneth mountain, 
Cader Idris, which towers on the right hand to the height of 3100 feet. It is 
a long ridge rather than a peak, and steep precipices guard the upper portion. 
Two little lakes near the summit, enclosed by cliffs, afford magnificent scenery. 
Here is " Idris's Chair." where the grim magician, who used to make the moun- 



4 6 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




tain his home, sat to perform his incantations, whilst in a hollow at the summit 
he had his couch. According to Welsh tradition, whoever passed the night 
there would emerge in the morning either mad or a poet. This mountain, like 

Snowdon, is said to 
have been former- 
ly a volcano, and le- 
gends tell of the fiery 
outbursts that came 
from its craters, now 
occupied by the two 
little lakes. But the 
truth of these le- 
gends, though inter- 
woven into Welsh 
poetry, is denied by 
prosaic geologists. A 
rough and steep track, 
known as the "Fox's 
Path," leads to the 

,A,,KK IDRIS, ON THE TALY-SLYN ASCENT. summit, and there is 

a tine view northward across the valleys to the distant summits of Snowdon 
and its attendant peaks, while spread at our feet 
to the westward is the broad expanse of Cardi- 
gan Bay. Lakes abound in the lowlands, and, 
pursuing the road up the Mawddach we pass 
the " Pool of the Three Pebbles." Once upon 
a time three stones got into the shoe of the giant 
Idris as he was walking about his domain, and he 
stopped here and threw them out. Here they 
still remain — three ponderous boulders — in the 
lake. 

We leave the Mawddach and follow its tribu- 
tary, the little river Wnion, as it ripples along 
over its pebbly bed guarded by strips of meadow. 
Soon we come to the lovely "Village of the 
Hazels," Dolgelly, standing in the narrow val- 
ley, and probably the prettiest spot in Wales. 
Steep hills rise on either hand, with bare craggy 
summits anil the lower slopes richly wooded. Deep dells running into the 




KHAYAIIR-Y-MAWDIJACH. 



THE COAST OF MERIONETH. 



47 



hills vary the scenery, and thus the town is set in an amphitheatre of hills, up 
whose flanks the houses seem to climb. There is a little old church, and in a 
back court the ruins of the " Parliament House," where Owen Glendower assem- 
bled the Welsh Parliament in 1404. The Torrent Walk, where the stream 
from the mountain is spanned by picturesque bridges, is a favorite resort of 




IXtLGELLY 



the artist, and also one of the most charming- bits of scenery in the neighbor- 
hood of this beautiful town. Pursuing the valley farther up and crossing the 
watershed, we come to the largest in- 
land water of Wales, the beautiful Bala 
Lake, heretofore referred to in describ- 
ing the river Dee, which drains it. It 
is at an elevation of six hundred feet, 
surrounded by mountain-peaks, and 
the possibility of making it available 
as a water-supply for London has been 
considered. 

There is an attractive place on the 
Merioneth coast to the southward of 
Barmouth, at the mouth of the Rhei- 
dol, and near the estuary of the river Dovey. A ruined tower on a low 
eminence guards the harbor, where now is a fashionable watering-place, 
and is almost all that remains of the once powerful Aberystwith Castle, 




OWEN GLENDOWER'S PARLIAMENT HOUSE. 



another stronghold of Kim/ Edward I. 



Portions of the entrance-gate and 



4 8 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



barbican can be t raced, while the modern houses of the town are spread 
to the northward along the semicircular bay. The University Colleye of 




THE liiWIU BK1DGE, TORRENT WALK, DOLGKl.I \ . 



Wales is located lure, and the town is popularly known as the "Welsh 
Brighton," while among its antiquities in the suburbs is the ruined castel 




BALA LAKE. 

lated mansion of l'las Crug, said to have been Glendower's home. On the 
northern part of the Merioneth coast is the entrance to the pleasant vale 
of Pfestiniog, another attractive spot to tourists. Tan-y-bwlch and Maentwrog 



THE COAST OF MERIONETH. 



49 



arc romantic villages adjoining each other in this pretty valley full of water- 
falls, among these being the renowned Black Cataract and the Raven Fall. 

About twelve miles north of 
Barmouth the picturesque Har- 
lech Castle stands on a promon- 
tory guarding the entrance to 
the Traeth. The cliff is pre- 
cipitous, with just enough level 
surface on the top to accommo- 
date the castle. The place is a 
quadrangle, with massive round 
towers at the corners connected 
by lofty curtain-walls. Circular 
towers, protected by a barbican, 
guard the entrance on the land 
side. Deep ditches cut in the 
rock surround the castle where 
that defence is necessary. From 
this fortress on the Rock of Har- 
lech the view is magnificent. This 
crag is said to have supported a 
castle as early as the third cen- 
tury, when Lady Bronwen built 
it, and, beiny; of most sensitive 
honor, died afterwards of grief 
because her husband had struck 
her. Unhappily, she was in 
advance of her age in her de- 
monstration of woman's rights. 
Another castle replaced the first 
one in the sixth century, and some of its ruins were worked into the pres- 
ent castle, which is another achievement of the great Welsh fortress-builder, 
Edward I. It has stood several sieges. Owen Glendower held it five years 
against the English! When Edward IV. became king, Harlech still held out 
for the Lancastrian party, the redoubtable Welshman, David ap Ifon, being the 
governor. Summoned to surrender, the brave David replied, "I held a town 
in France till all the old women in Wales heard of it, and now I will hold a 
castle in Wales till all the old women in France hear of it." But David was 
starved into surrender, and dun Edward IV. tried to break the terms of capit- 

7 




AliKRYSTWITH. 






I \, LAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



ulation made by Sir Richard Pembroke, the besieger. Sir Richard, more gen- 
erous, told the king, "Then, by Heaven, 1 will let David and his garrison into 

Harlech again.and Your 
1 [ighness may fetch him 
out by any who can, and 
it you demand my life 
for his, take it." The 
soul; of "The March 
of the Men of Har- 
lech " is a memorial ol 
this siege. 1 larlech was 
the last Welsh fortress 
during the Civil Wars 
that held out for Charles 
I., and since then it has 
been gradually falling to 
decay. 

We have now con- 
ducted the tourist to 
the chief objects in 
North Wales. The rail- 
wax' runs on to Holy- 
,,u;Ul " CASTI - E - head, built on the ex- 

treme point o! Holy Island on the western verge ol Anglesea, where there is a 
fine harbor ol refuge, lighthouses, and an excellent port. Here conies the 
"Wild Irishman," as the last train is called that runs between London and 
Ireland, and its passengers are quickly transferred to the swift steamers that 
cross the Channel to Dublin harbor. Lighthouses dot the cliffs on the coast, 
and at this romantic outpost we will close the survey of North Wales. 




"There evei dimpling Ocean's cheek 
Reflects tin- tint-- of m. in\ a peak, 
Caught by the laughing tides th.it lave 
Those Edens of tin- Western wave." 



II 



LIVERPOOL, NORTHWARD TO THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 

Lancashire — Warrington — Manchester — Furness Abbey — The Ribble — Stonyhurst -Lancaster Castle— Isle 
"i Man — Castletown — Rushen Castle Peele Castle— The Lake Country— Windermere— Lodore Fall— 
Derwentwater — Keswick Greta Hall — Southey, Wordsworth, and Coleridge Skiddaw— The Border 
Castles— Kendal i astle Brougham Hall -The Solwa) -Carlisle Castle Scalebj Castle -Naworth — 
Lord William Howard. 

LANCASH 1 K E. 

THE great manufacturing count)- of England lor cotton and woollen spin- 
ning and weaving is Lancashire. Liverpool is the seaport lor die vast 
aggregation oi manufacturers who own the huge mills of Manchester, Sal- 
ford, Warrington, Wigan, Oldham, Rochdale, Bolton, Blackburn, Preston, and 
a score ot other towns, whose operatives work into yarns and fabrics the mil- 
lions of bales of cot- 
ton and wool that 
come into the Mersey. 
The warehouse and 
factory, with the spin- 
ners' cottages and the 
manufacturers' villas, \i 
make up these towns, 
almost all of modern 
growth, anil the busy & 
machinery and smok- 9 
ing chimneys leave 
little chance for ro- 
mance in Southern 
Lancashire. It was in 
this section that trade 
first compelled the use 
ol modern improve- 
ments : here were used the earliest steam-engines; here labored Arkwright to 
perfect the spinning machinery, and Stephenson to build railways. To meet 




(>!.]> MARKET, WARRINGTON. 



VGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



the necessities ol communication between Liverpool and Manchester, the first 
canal was dug in England, and this was followed afterwards bj the first experi- 
mental railwaj ; the canal was constructed by Brindley, and was railed the 
"Grand Trunk Canal," being twenty-eight miles long from Manchester to the 
Mersej River, at Runcorn above Liverpool, ami was opened in [767. Hie 
railwaj was opened in [830; the odd little engine, the "Rocket," then drew 
an excursion-train oxer it. and the opening was marred in an accident which 
killed Joseph Huskisson, onr ol the members ol Parliament for Liverpool. 
Let us follow this railway, which now carries an enormous traffic out ol Liver- 
pool, eastward along the valley ol the Mersej past Warrington, with its quaint 
old timbered market house, and then up its tributary, the [rwell, thirty-one 
miles to Manchester. 

MANCH ESTER, 

The chief manufacturing city ol England has not a striking effect upon the 
visitor as he approaches it. It is scattered over a broad surface upon a gently 
undulating plain, and its suburbs straggle out into the country villages, which 
it is steadily absorbing in its rapid growth; the [rwell passes in a winding 
course through the city, receiving a couple of tributaries ; this river divides 
Manchester from Salford, but a do/en bridges unite them. No city in England 
has had such rapid growth as Manchester in this century; it has increased from 
about seventy thousand people at the beginning of the century to over halt a 
million now ; and this is all the effect o\ the development of manufacturing 
industry. Yet Manchester is one of the oldesl towns in England, for there 
was a Roman camp at Mancunium. as the Caesars called it. in the first century 
^\ the Christian era: and we are also told that in the days when giants lived 
m England it was the scene of a terrific combat between Sir Launcelot o( the 
bake ,\nd the giant 1'arquin. A ballad tells the story, but it is easier read in 
prose: Sir Launcelot was travelling near Manchester when he heard that this 
giant held in durance vile a number ot' knights — "threescore and tour" in all; 
a damsel conducts him to the sjianfs castle-eate. "near Manchester, lair town." 

o o 

where a copper basin hung to do dut) as a bell; he strikes it so hard as to 
break it. when out comes the giant read} for the fray: a terrific combat ensues, 
and the giant, finding that he has met his match, otters to release the captives, 
provided his adversar) is not a certain knight that slew his brother. Unfor- 
tunately, it happens that Sir Launcelot is the very same, and the combat is 
renewed with such vigor that the giant is slain, "to the great contentment ot' 
main persons." 

The ancient Mancunium was a little camp and city ot" about twelve acres, 



MANCHESTER. 



53 



partly bounded by a tributary of the [rwell known as the Medlock. A ditch 
on the land-side was still visible in the last century, and considerable portions 
of the old Roman walls also remained within two hundred years. Man) 
Roman relics have been discovered in the city, and at Knott Mill, the site of 
the giant Tarquin's castle, a fragment of the Roman wall is said to be still 
visible. The town in the early Tudor days had a college, and then a cathe 
dral, and it was besieged in the Civil Wars, though it steadily grew, and in 
Charles II. 's time it was described as a busy and opulent place; but it had 
barely six thousand people. Cotton-spinning had then begun, the cotton com 
ing ; from Cyprus and Smyrna. In 1700 life in Manchester, as described in a 
local guide-book, was noted by close application to business; the manufac- 
turers were in their warehouses by six in the morning, breakfasted at seven on 
bowls ol porridge and milk, into which masters and apprentices dipped their 
spoons indiscriminately, ami dined at twelve; the ladies went out visiting at 
two in the afternoon, and attended church at four. Manchester was conserva 
tive in the Jacobite rebellion, and raised a regiment for the Pretender, Inn the 
royalist forces defeated it, captured the officers, and beheaded them. Man 
Chester politics then were just the opposite of its present Liberal tendencies, 
and it was Byrom, a Manchester man, who wrote the quaint epigram regarding 
the Pretender and his friends which has been so often quoted : 

"(Hid bless the King — I mean our faith's defender.! 
(iod bless (no harm in blessing) the Pretendei ! 
But who Pretender is, or who is King — 
God bless ns all! that's quite another thing." 

It was the rapid growth of manufacturing industry in Manchester that 
changed its politics, anil it 
was here that was first con- 
spicuously advocated the 
free-trade agitation in Eng- 
land which triumphed in 
the repeal ol the Corn 
Laws, so as to admit food 
free of duty for the opera- 
tives, and in the Reform bill 
that changed the represen- 
tation in Parliament. That 
fine building, the " Free- 
Trade I bill," is a monu- 
ment ol this agitation in Manchester cathedral, from the south-east. 




54 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



which Manchester took such prominent part. As the city has grown in wealth, 
so has its architectural appearance improved; its school- and college-buildings 
are very tine, particularly Owens College, munificently endowed by a leading 
merchant. The Manchester Cathedral is an ancient building overlooking the 
Irwell which has had to be renewed in so many parts that it has a comparatively 
modern aspect. Other English cathedrals are more imposing, but this, "the 
ould paroch church" spoken of by the ancient chroniclers, is highly prized by 
the townsfolk ; the architecture is Perpendicular and of many dates. Until 
recently this was the only parish church in Manchester, and consequently all 
the marriages for the city had to be celebrated there ; the number was at times 
very large, especially at Easter, and not a few tales are told ot how, in the con- 




TIIK Assl/i COUR fS, M VNCHES1 ! K. 



fusion, the wrong pairs were joined together, and when the mistake was dis- 
covered respliced with little ceremony. It was in this Manchester Cathedral 
that one rector is said to have generally begun tin- marriage service by instruct- 
ing the awaiting crowd to "sort yourselves in the vestry." 

Some ot the public buildings in Manchester are most sumptuous. The Assize 
Courts are constructed in rich style, with lofty Pointed roots and a tall tower, 
and make one of the finest modern buildings in England. The great hall is a 
grand apartment, and behind the courts is the prison, near which the Fenians 
in 1867 made the celebrated rescue of the prisoners trom the van for which 
some ot the assailants were hanged and others transported. The Royal Ex- 
change is a massive structure in the Italian style, with a fine portico, dome, and 



MANCHESTER. 



l^ 



towers ; the hall within is said to be probably the largest room in England, 
having a width of ceiling-, without supports, of one hundred and twenty feet. 
Here on cotton-market days assemble the buyers and sellers from all the 
towns in Lancashire, and they do an enormous traffic. The new Town-Hall 
is also a fine building, where the departments of the city government are 
accommodated, and where they have an apartment dear to every Englishman's 




THE ROYAL EXCHANGE, MANCHESTER. 

heart — "a kitchen capable of preparing a banquet for eight hundred persons." 
The warehouses of Manchester are famous for their size and solidity, and 
could Arkwright come back and see what his cotton-spinning machinery has 
produced, he would be amazed. It was in Manchester that the famous 1 )r. 
Dalton, the founder of the atomic theory in chemistry, lived; he was a devout 
Quaker, like so many of the townspeople, but unfortunately was color-blind ; 
he appeared on one occasion in a scarlet waistcoat, and when taken to task 
declared it seemed to him a very quiet, unobtrusive color, just like his own 
coat. Several fine parks grace the suburbs of Manchester, and King Cotton 
has made this thriving community the second city in England, while for miles 
along the beautifully shaded roads that lead into the suburbs the opulent mer- 
chants and manufacturers have built their ornamental villas. 



56 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



FURNESS AND STONYHURST. 

The irregularly-shaped district of Lancashire partly cut off from the remain- 
der of the county by an arm of the Irish Sea is known as Furness. It is a 
wild and rugged region, best known from the famous Furness Abbey and its 
port of Barrow-in-Furness, one of the most remarkable examples in England 
of quick city growth. Forty years ago this was an insignificant fishing village ; 
now Barrow has magnificent docks and a fine harbor protected by the natural 
breakwater ot Walney Island, great iron-foundries and the largest jute-manu- 
factory in the world ; 
while it has recent- 
ly also became a fa- 
vorite port for iron 
shipbuilding. About 
two miles distant, 
and in a romantic 
glen called the Val- 
ley of Deadly Night- 
shade, not far from 
the sea, is one of the 
finest examples of 
mediaeval church- 
architecture in Eng- 
land, the ruins of 
Furness Abbey, 
founded in the 
twelfth century by 
King Stephen and 
Maud, his queen. 
It was a splendid ab- 
be y, standing high 
in rank and power, 

its income in the reign ot Edward I. being soo.ooo a year, an enormous sum for 
that early day. The ruins are in fine preservation, and effigies of Stephen and 
Maud are on each side of the great east window. For twelve reigns the char- 
ters of sovereigns and bulls of popes confirmed the abbots of Furness in their 
extraordinary powers, which extended over the district of Furness, while the 
situation ot the abbey made them military chieftains, and they erected a watch- 
tower on a high hill, from which signals alarmed the coast on the approach of an 




FCRXESS ABBEY. 



FURNESS AND STONYHURST. 57 



enemy. The church is three hundred and four feet long, and from the centre 
rose a tower, three of the massive supporting pillars of which remain, but the 
tower has fallen and lies a mass of rubbish ; the stained glass from the great 
east window having been removed to Bowness Church, in YVestmorelandshire. 
The abbey enclosure, covering eighty-five acres, was surrounded by a wall, the 
ruins of which are now covered with thick foliage. This renowned abbey was 
surrendered and dismantled in Henry VIII.'s reign ; the present hotel near the 
ruins was formerly the abbot's residence. 

The river Ribble, which Hows into the Irish Sea through a wide estuary, 
drains the western slopes of the Pennine Hills, which divide Lancashire from 
Yorkshire. Up in the north-western portion of Lancashire, near the bases 
of these hills, is a moist region known as the parish of Mitton, where, as the 
poet tells us, 

" The Hodder, the Calder, Ribble, and rain 
All meet together in Mitton domain." 

In Mitton parish, amid the woods along the Hodder and on the north side of 
the valley of the Ribble, stands the splendid domed towers of the baronial 
edifice of Stonyhurst, now the famous Jesuit College of England, where the 
sons of the Catholic nobility and gentry are educated. The present building 
is about three hundred years old, and quaint gardens adjoin it, while quite an 
extensive park surrounds the college. Not far away are Clytheroe Castle and 
the beautiful ruins of Whalley Abbey. The Stonyhurst gardens are said to 
remain substantially as their designer, Sir Nicholas Sherburne, left them. A 
capacious water-basin is located in the centre, with the leaden statue of Regulus 
in chains standing in the midst of the water. Summer-houses with tall pointed 
roofs are at each lower extremity of the garden, while an observatory is upon a 
commanding elevation. Tall screens of clipped yews, cut square ten feet high and 
five feet thick, divide the beds upon one side of the gardens, so that as you walk 
among them you are enveloped in a green yet pleasant solitude. Arched door- 
ways are cut through the yews, and in one place, descending by broad and easy 
steps, there is a solemn, cool, and twilight walk formed by the overarching yews, 
the very place for religious meditation. Then, reascending, this sombre walk 
opens into air and sunshine amid delicious flower-gardens. On the opposite 
side of the gardens are walls hung with fruit, and plantations of kitchen vege- 
tables. This charming place was fixed upon by the Jesuits for their college in 
1794, when driven from Liege by the proscriptions of the French Revolution. 
The old building and the additions then erected enclose a large quadrangular 
court. In the front of the college, at the southern angle, is a fine little Gothic 

8 



ss 



\'i : :\ ' PfCTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



church, built tiii\ years ago. Hie college refectory is a splendid baronial hall. 
In the Mitton village-church near by are the tombs oi the Sherburne family, 
the most singular monument being that to Sir Richard and his lady, which the 
villagers point out as "old Fiddle o' (\ok\ and his wife" — Fiddle o' God being 
his customary exclamation when angry, which tradition says was not seldom, 
rhe figures are kneeling — he in run and jerkin, she in black gown and hood. 
with tan-leather gloves extending up her arms, fhese figures, being highly 
colored, as was the fashion in the olden time, have a ludicrous appearance. We 
are told that when these monuments came from London the) were the talk of 
the whole country round. A stonemason bragged that he could cut out as 
good a figure in common stone. Taken at his word, he was put to the test, 
.\nd carved the effigj of a knight in freestone which so pleased the Sherburne 
familj that thej gave him one hundred dollars tor it, and it is now set in the 
wall outside the church, near the monuments. 



1 rVNl As l 1 K CAS 11 E. 



[ohn of Gaunt, "time honored 1 ancaster," was granted the Duchy o\ 1 an 
caster by his lather. King Edward HI., but the place which stands upon the 
river Lune is ot much greater antiquity. 



It was a Roman camp, and hence its 

name. The Picts destroyed it when the 

Romans left ; the Saxons afterwards 

restored it. and ultimately it gave the 

name to the county. King John gave 

the town a charter. And [ohn ot" Gaunt 

rebuilt the fortress, which became in 

dissoluhlv connected with the fortunes 

o\ the House ot" Lancaster. Though 

sometimes besieged, it was maintained 

more tor purposes ot state than ot war. 

and two centuries ago it still existed in 

all its ancient splendor, commanding the 

city and the sea. 1 ancaster stands on 

the slope ot" an eminence rising from 

the river lune. and the casde-towers 

crown the summit, the fortress being 

spacious, with a large courtyard and 

variously-shaped towers. The keep is square, enormously strong, and defended 

b\ two semi octagonal towers. This keep is known as "John ofGaunt's Chair." 




: E SQITAR1 N ISTBR. 



ISLE OF MAX. 



59 




r.KADDA HKAD. 



its coasts are irregular, its shores 
of mountains traverses the entire 
island, the highest peak being 
Snaefell, rising 2024 feet, with 
North Barrule at one extremity 
and Cronk-ny-Jay l.laa, or "The 
1 1 ill of the Rising I )ay," .it the 
other. Man is a miniature king- 
dom, with its reproduction, some- 
times in dwarf, ol everything that 
other kingdoms have. It has lour 
little rivers, the Neb, Colby, Black 
and Gray Waters, with little gems 
of cascades; has its own dialect, 
the Manx, and a parliament in 
miniature, known as the Council, 
or Upper House, and the House 



and commands a tine view of the surround- 
ing countr\- and far away across the sea to 
the distant outlines of the Isle ol' Man. This 
famous castle, partly modernized, is now 
used for the county jail and courts, the 
prison-chapel being in the keep. In the 
town several large manufactories attest 
the presiding genius of Lancashire, and 
the inn is the comfortable and old-fash 
ioned King's Arms described 1>\ Dickens. 

ISLE OK MAN. 

Let us go off from the Lancashire coast 
to that strange island which lies in the sea 
midway between England, Scotland, ami 
Ireland, and whose hold shores are visible 
from " John of Gaunt' s Chair." It stretches 
tor thirty-three miles from its northern ex 
tremity at the point of Ayre to the hold de- 
tached clilts of the little islet at the southern 
end known as the Calf of Man. Covering two 
hundred and twenty-seven square miles area, 
in sev.eral places precipitous, and a range 




KIRK BKADDEN. 



6o 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




KHENASS WATERFA1 I.. 



of Keys. It is a healthful resort, 
for all the winds that blow come 
from the sea, and its sea-views 
are striking, the rugged masses of 
Bradda Head, the mellow-coloring 
of the Calf, and the broad expanse 
oi waters, dotted by scores of fish- 
ing-boats, making many scenes of 
artistic merit. While the want ot 
trees makes the land-views harsh 
and cold, yet the glens and coves 
opening into the sea are the 
charms of Manx scenery, the high 
fuchsia-hedges surrounding many 
ot the cottages giving bright col- 
oring to the landscape when the 
flowers are in bloom. It is a beau- 
tiful place when once the tourist is 
able to land there, but the wharf 
arrangements are not so good as 
they might be. Once landed, the 
visitor usually first proceeds to 
soke the great zoological prob- 
lem the island has long presented 
to the outer world, and finds that 
the Isle of Man does really pos- 
sess a breed ot tailless cats, whose 
caudal extremity is either altogether 
wanting or at most is reduced to a 
merely rudimental substitute. 



CASTLE RUSH EN. 

Landing at the capital. Castletown, it is found that it gets its. name from the 
ancient castle of Rushen, around which the town is built. Guttred the Dane 
i-. said to have built this castle nine hundred years ago, and to be buried beneath 
it, although Cardinal Wolsey constructed the surrounding stone glacis. I he 
keep — into which the prisoners hail to be lowered by ropes — and several parts 
>t the interior buildings remain almost entire, but repeated sieges so wrecked 
the other portions that they have had to be restored. At the castle-entrance 



CASTLE RUSiVEN. 



61 



were stone chairs for the governor and judges. It was here that the eminent 
men who have ruled the Isle of Man presided, among them being Regulus, 
who was King of Man, and the famous Percy, who was attainted of high 
treason in 1403. Afterwards it was ruled by the Earls of Derby, who relin- 
quished the title of king and took that of Lord of Man, holding their sover- 
eignty until they sold it and the castles and patronage of the island to 

the Crown in 1 764 for 
$350,000. With such a his- 
tory it is natural that Cas- 
tle Rushen should have a 
weird interest attached to 
it, and the an- 
cient chroniclers 
tell of a myste- 
rious apartment 
within "which 
has never been 
opened in the 
memory of man." 
Tradition' says that this 
famous castle was first in- 
habited by fairies, and afterwards 
by the giants, until Merlin, by his magic 
power, dislodged most of the giants and 
bound the others in spells. In proof of this 
it is said there are fine apartments underneath the ground, to explore which 
several venturesome persons have gone down, only one of whom ever returned. 
To save the lives of the reckless would be explorers, therefore, this mysterious 
apartment, which gives entrance underground, is kept shut. The one who 
returned is described as an "explorer of uncommon courage," who managed to 
get back by the help of a clue of packthread which he took with him, and was 
thus able to retrace his steps. He had a wondrous tale tp tell. After passing 
a number of vaults, and through a long, narrow passage which descended for 
more than a mile, he saw a little gleam of light, and gladly sought it out. The 
light came from a magnificent house, brilliantly illuminated. Having "well for- 
tified himself with brand)- before beginning the exploration," he courageously 
knocked at the door, and at the third knock a servant appeared, demanding 
what was wanted. He asked for directions how to proceed farther, as the 
house seemed to block the passage. The servant, after some parley, led him 




CASTLE RUSHEN. 



/ VC LAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 

through the house and out at the back door. He walked ;i long distance, and 
then beheld another house, more magnificent than the first, where, the windows 
being open, he saw innumerable lamps burning in all the rooms. He was about 
to knock, but first had the curiosity to peep through a window into the parlor. 
rhere was a large black marble table in the middle ol the room, and on it lay 
at full length a giant who, the explorer says, was "at least fourteen feet long 
and ten feet round the body." The giant lay with his head pillowed on a book, 
as it asleep, and there was a prodigious sword alongside him, proportioned to 
the hand that was to use it. This sight was so terrifying that the explorer 
made the best of his way back to the first house, where the servant told him 
that it he had knocked at the giant's door he would have had company enough, 
but would have never returned, lie desired to know what place it was, but 
was told, "These things are not to be revealed." Then he made his way 
back to daylight by the aid of the clue of packthread as quickly as possible, and 
we are told that no one has ventured down there since. This is but one of the 
many tales ot mystery surrounding the venerable Rushen L'astlr. 

PEELE CASTLE. 

The Isle of Man derives its name from the ancient British word mon, which 
means "isolated." Around this singular place there are many rocky islets, 
also isolated, and upon one of the most picturesque of these, where art and 
Nature have vied in adding strength to beauty, is built the castle ot Peele, off 
the western coast, overlooking the distant shores of Ireland. This castle is 
perched upon a huge rock, rising for a great height out of the sea. and com- 
pletely inaccessible, except by the approach which lias been constructed on the 
side towards the Isle of Man, where the little town o\ Peele is located. After 
crossing the arm of the sea separating the castle from the town, the visitor, 
landing at the fool of the rock, ascends about sixty steps, cut out of it. to the 
first wall, which is massive and high, and built oi the old red sandstone in 
which the island abounds; the ;_;ates in this wall are ot wood, curiously arched 
ami carved, and four little watch-towers on the wall overlook the sea. Having 
entered, he mounts by another shorter stairway cut out of the rock to the sec- 
ond wall, built like the other, and both oi them full ot portholes lor cannon. 
Passing through yet a third wall, there is found a broad plain upon the top of 
the rock, where stands the castle, surrounded by tour churches, three almost 
entirely ruined; the other church (St. Germain's) is kept in some repair 
because it has within the bishop's chapel, while beneath is a horrible dungeon 
where the sea runs in and out through hollows ot the rock with a continual 
roar; a steep and narrow stairwav descends to the dungeon and burial vaults. 



PEELE CASTLE. 



63 



ami within arc thirteen pillars supporting the chapel above. Beware, if going 
down, ot failing to count the pillars, for we are told that he who neglects this 
is sure to do something that will occasion his confinement in this dreadful 
dungeon. This famous castle of Peele even in its partly-ruined state has 
several noble apartments, and here Were located some of the most interest- 
ing scenes of Scott's novel of Peveril of the Peak. It was in former days a 
state-prison, and in it were at one time confined Warwick the King-maker, and 
also Gloucester's haughty wife, Eleanor; her discontented spectre was said to 




PEELE CASTLE. 



haunt the battlements in former years, and stand motionless beside one of the 
watch-towers, only disappearing when the cock crew or church-bell tolled; 
another apparition, a shaggy spaniel known as the Manthe Doog, also haunted 
the castle, particularly the guard-chamber, where the dog came and lay down 
at candlelight; the soldiers lost much of their terror by the frequency of the 
sight, but none of them liked to be left alone with him, though he did not 
molest them. The clog came out by a passage through the church where the 
soldiers had to go to deliver the keys to their captain, and for moral support 
they never went that way alone. One of the soldiers, we are told, on a certain 



64 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



night, "being much disguised m liquor' (for spirits ol various kinds appear in 
the Isle of Man, as most other places), insisted upon going with the keys alone, 
and could not be dissuaded ; he said he was determined to discover whether 
the apparition was dog or devil, and, snatching the; keys, departed; soon there- 
was a great noise, but none ventured to ascertain the cans,'. When the soldier 
returned he was speechless and horror-stricken, nor would he ever by word or 
sign tell what had happened to him, hut soon died in agony; then the passage 
was wallet! up, and the Manthe Doog was never more seen at Castle Peele. 



Til E LAK E COUN IKY. 

North o\ Lancashire, in the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland, is 
the famous "Lake Country" of England. It does not cover a large area — in 
fact, a good pedestrian can walk from one extremity of the region to the other 
in a day — but its compact beauties have a charm of rugged outline and luxu- 
riant detail that in a condensed 
form reproduce the Alpine lakes 
of Northern Italy. Derwent- 
water is conceded to be the 
finest of these English 
lakes, but there is also 
great beauty in Win- 
dermere and Ulleswa- 
ter, Luttermere and 
Wast water. The Der- 
went runs like a thread 
through the glassy bead 
of Derwentwater, a 
magnificent oval lake 
set among the hills, about 
astl^f* 1 three miles long and half 
r-Jtr' that breadth, alongside which 
Pp^jSsir ,. rises the frowning Mount Skid- 

^3%'-v~ c ' daw with its pair of rounded 
^ft/fp^-"" heads. In entering the Lake Re- 
v glimpse of derwentwater. from scAFELL. g[ on trom the Lancashire side 
we first come to the pretty Windermere Lake, the largest of these inland 
sheets o\ water, about ten miles long and one mile broad in the widest part. 
From Orrest Head, near the village of Windermere, there is a magnificent 
view o\ the lake from end to end. though tourists prefer usually to go to the 







THE LAKE COUNTRY. 



65 



village of Bowness on the bank, where steamers start at frequent intervals and 
make the circuit of the pretty lake. From Bowness the route is by Rydal 
Mount, where the poet Wordsworth lived, to Keswick, about twenty-three 
miles distant, on Derwentwater. 

The attractive Derwent tlows down through the Borrowdale Valley past 
Seathwaite, where for many a year there has been worked a famous mine of 
plumbago: we use it for lead-pencils, but our English ancestors, while making 
it valuable for marking their sheep, prized it still more highly as a remedy for 
colic and other human ills. There are several pencil-mills in the village, which, 
in addition to other claims for fame, is noted as one of the rainiest spots in 
En'orland. the annual rainfall at Seathwaite sometimes reaching one hundred 
and eighty-two inches. The Derwent flows on through a gorge past the iso- 
lated pyramidal rock known as Castle Crag, and the famous Bowder Stone, 
which has fallen into the gorge from the crags above, to the hamlet of Grange, 
where a picturesque bridge spans the little river. We are told that the inhab- 
itants once built a wall across the 
narrowest part of this valley : hav- 
ing long noticed the coincident ap- : %i 
pearance of spring and the cuckoo, 
they rashly concluded that the latter 
was the cause of the former, and 
that if they could only retain the 
bird their pleasant valley would en- 
joy perpetual spring ; they built the 
wall as spring lengthened into sum- 
mer, and with the autumn came the 
crisis. The wall had risen to a con- 
siderable height when the cuckoo 
with the approach of colder weather 
was sounding its somewhat asth- 
matic notes as it moved from tree 
to tree down the valley ; it neared 
the wall, and as the population held 
their breath it suddenly flew over, 
and carried the spring away with it 
down the Derwent. Judge of the 
popular disgust when the sages of 
that region complainingly remarked that, having crossed but a few inches above 
the topmost stones of the wall, if the builders had only carried it a course or 




FALLS OF LllDURE. 



66 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



two higher the cuckoo might I.ave been kept at home-, and their valley thus 
have enjoyed a perennial spring. 

The I >erwent flows on along its gorge, which has been slowly ground out by 
a glacier in past ages, and enters the lake through the marshy, flat, reedy delta 
that rather detracts from the appearance of its upper end. Not far away a 
small waterfall comes tumbling over the crags among the foliage; this minia- 
ture Niagara has a fame almost as great as the mighty cataract of the New 
World, for it is the " Fall of Lodore," about which, in answer to his little boy's 
question, "How does the water come down at Lodore?" Southey wrote his 
well known poem that is such a triumph of versification, and from which this 
is a quotation : 

"Flying .mil flinging, writhing and wringing, 
Eddying and whisking, spouting ami frisking, 

Turning and twisting 
Around and around, with endless rebound, 
Smiting and lighting, ,1 sight to delight in, 

Confounding, astounding, 
Dizzying and deafening the ear with its sound; 
All .it once, and ill o'er, with might) uproar — 
And this way the water comes down at Lodore." 

Thus we reach the bonier of Derwentwater, nestling beneath the fells and 
crags, as its miniature surrounding mountains are called. Little wooded islets 
dimple the surface of the lake, in the centre being the largest, St. Herbert's 
Island, where once that saint lived in a solitary cell: he was the bosom friend 
of St. Cuthbert, the missionary of Northumberland, and made an annual pil- 
grimage over the Pennine I tills to visit him; loving each other in life, in death 
they were not divided, for Wordsworth tells us that 

"These holy men both dud in the same hour." 

Another islet is known as Lord's Island, where now the rooks are in full pos- 
session, but where once was the home of the ill-fated Earl of Derwentwater, 
who was beheaded in 171 6 for espousing the Pretender's cause. It is related 
that before his execution on Tower Hill he closely viewed the block, and find- 
ing a rough place which might offend his neck, he bath' the headsman chip it off; 
this done, he cheerfully placed his head upon it, gave the sign, and died; his 
estates were forfeited and settled by the king on Greenwich Hospital, Castle 
Hill rises boldly on the shore above Derwent Isle, where there is a pretty resi- 
lience, and every few years there is added to the other islets on the bosom ot 
the lake the " bloating Island," a mass of vegetable matter that becomes 
detached from the marsh at the tipper end. At briar's Crag, beneath Castle 



THE BORDER CASTLES. 6/ 



Hill, the lake begins to narrow, and at Portinscale the Derwent flows out, 
receives the waters of the Greta cominsr from Keswick, and, after flowing a 
short distance through the meadowdand, expands again into Bassenthwaite 
Lake, a region of somewhat tamer yet still beautiful scenery. 

The town of Keswick stands some distance back from the border of Der- 
wentwater, and is noted as having been the residence of Southey. In Greta 
Hall, an unpretentious house in the town, Southey lived for forty years, dying 
there in 1843. He was laid to rest in the parish church of Crosthwaite, just 
outside the town. At the pretty little church there is a marble altar-tomb, the 
inscription on which to Southey's memory was written by Wordsworth. Greta 
Hall was also for three years the home of Coleridge, the two families dwelling 
under the same roof. Behind the modest house rises Skiddaw, the bare crags 
of the rounded summits being elevated over three thousand feet, and beyond it 
the hills and moors of the Skiddaw Forest stretch northward to the Solway, 
with the Scruffel Hill beyond. Upon a slope of the mountain, not far from 
Keswick, is a Druids' circle, whose builders scores of centuries ago watched 
the mists on Skiddaw's summit, as the people there do now, to foretell a change 
of weather as the clouds might rise or fall, for they tell us that 

" If Skiddaw hath a cap, 
Scruffel wots full well of that.'* 

THE BORDER CASTLES. 

At Kendal, in Westmorelandshire, are the ruins of Kendal Castle, a relic of 
the Norman days, but long since gone to decay. Here lived the ancestors 
of King Henry VIII. 's last wife, Queen Catharine Parr. Opposite it are the 
ruins of Castle How, and not far away the quaint appendage known as Castle 
Dairy, replete with heraldic carvings. It was in the town of Kendal that was 
made the foresters' woollen cloth known as " Kendal green," which was the 
uniform of Robin Hood's band. 

In the northern part of the county, on the military road to Carlisle, are the 
ruins of Brougham Castle, built six hundred years ago. It was here that the 
Earl of Cumberland magnificently entertained King James I. for three days 
on one of his journeys out of Scotland. It is famous as the home of the late 
Henry, Lord Brougham, whose ancestors held it for many generations. The 
manordiouse, known as Brougham Hall, has such richness, variety, and extent 
of prospect from its terraces that it is called the " Windsor of the North." 
Lord Brougham was much attached to his magnificent home, and it was here 
in i860 that he finished his comprehensive work on the British Constitution, 



68 



VGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



and wrote its famous dedication to the queen, beginning with the memorable 
words, " Madame I presume to lay at Your Majesty's feet a work the result 
o{ main years' diligent study, much calm reflection, and a long life's experience." 
In elose proximity to the castle is the Roman station Broeavum, founded by 
Agricola in a. i>. 70. Its outline is clearly defined, the camp within the inner 
ditch measuring almost one thousand feet square. Various Roman roads lead 
from it, and much o\ the materials of the outworks were built into the original 
Brougham Castle. 

The Solway and its firth divide England' from Scotland, and this border- 
Ian 1 has been the scene o( main deadly feuds, though happily only in the da\ s 
long agone. The castle o( Carlisle was a noted border stronghold, built of 
red sandstone by King William Rutus. who rebuilt Carlisle, which had then 
i" lain in ruins two hun- 

dred years because of 
the forays of the 1 )anes. 
Richard 111. enlarged die 
castle, and Henry VIII. 
built the citadel. Here 
Mary Queen of Scots 
was once lodged, but in 
Elizabeth's time the castle 
ell into decay. In the 
town is a fine cathedral. 
which has been thorough- 
v restored. In a tlat sit- 
uation north oi Carlisle 
are the ruins oi Sealeby 
Castle, once a fortress 
of great strength, but 
' ■ almost battered to pieces 
when it resisted Crom- 
well's forces. There are several acres enclosed within the moat, intended for 
the cattle when driven in to escape the forays that came oxer the border. This 
venerable castle is now a picturesque ruin. Twelve miles north-east o( Car- 
lisle is Naworth Castle, near where the Roman Wall crossed England. This is 
one o\ the finest feudal remains in Cumberland, having been the stronghold 
of the Wardens of the Marches, who guarded the border from Scottish incur- 
sions. It stands amid tine scenery, and just to the southward is the Roman 
Wall, o( which many remains are still traced, while upon the high moorland in 




THE BORDER CASTLES. 



6 9 



the neighborhood is the paved Roman Road, twelve feet wide and laid with 
stone. At Naworth there was always a strong garrison, for the border was 
rarely at peace, and 

" Stern on the angry confines Naworth rose, 
In dark woods islanded ; its towers looked forth 
And frowned defiance on the angry North." 

Here lived, with a host of retainers, the famous "belted Will"— Lord Wil- 
liam Howard, son of the fourth Duke of Norfolk — who in the early part of the 
seventeenth century finally brought peace to the bonier by his judicious exer- 
cise for many years of the Warden's powers. It is of this famous soldier and 
chivalrous knight, whose praises are even yet sung in the borderland, that 
Scott has written — 

" Howard, than whom knight 
Was never dubbed more bold in fight, 
Nor, when from war and armor free, 
More famed for stately courtesy." 




VIEW ON TOKKENT WALK, DOLGELEY. 



III. 

LIVERPOOL, THROUGH THE MIDLAND COUNTIES, TO LONDON. 

The Peak of Derbyshire — Castleton — Bess of Hardnicke — Hardwicke Hall — Bolsover Castle — The Wye and 
the Derwent — Buxton — Bakewell — Haddon Hall — The King of the Peak — Dorothy Vernon — Rowsley 
— The Peacock Inn — Chatsworth — The Victoria Regia — Matlock — Dovedale — Beauchief Abbey — Staf- 
ford Castle — Trentham Hall — Tamworth — Tutbury Castle — Chartley Castle — Alton Towers — Shrews- 
bury Castle — Bridgenorth — Wenlock Abbey — Ludlow Castle — The Feathers Inn — Lichfield Cathedral 
— Dr. Samuel Johnson — Coventry — Lady Godiva and Peeping Tom — Belvoir Castle — Charnwood 
Forest — Groby and Bradgate — Elizabeth Widvile and Lady Jane Grey — Ulverscroft Priory — Grace 
Dieu Abbey — Ashby de la Zouche — Langley Priory — Leicester Abbey and Castle — Bosworth Field — 
Edgehill — Naseby— The Land of Shakespeare — Stratford-on -Avon— Warwick — Kenil worth — Birming- 
ham — Boulton and Watt — Fotheringhay Castle — Holmby House — Bedford Castle — John Bunyan — 
Woburn Abbey and the Russells — Stowe — Whaddon Hall — Great Hampden — Creslow House. 

THE PEAK OF DERBYSHIRE. 

THE river Mersey takes its sources — for it is formed by the union of several 
smaller streams — in the ranges of high limestone hills east of Liverpool, 
in North Derbyshire. These hills are an extension of the Pennine range that 
makes the backbone of England, and in Derbyshire they rise to a height of nearly 
two thousand feet, giving most picturesque scenery. The broad top of the range 
at its highest part is called the Kinderscout, or, more familiarly. "The Peak." 
The mountain-top is a vast moor, abounding in deep holes and water-pools, 
uninhabited excepting by the stray sportsman or tourist, and dangerous and 
difficult to cross. Yet, once mounted to the top, there are good views of the 
wild scenery of the Derbyshire hills, with the villages nestling in the glens, 
and of the " Kinder Fall," where much of the water from the summit pours 
down a cataract of some five hundred feet height, while not far away is the 
" Mermaid's Pool," where, if you go at the midnight hour that ushers in Easter 
Sunday, and look steadily into the water, you will see a mermaid. The man 
who ventures upon that treacherous bogland by night certainly deserves to see 
the best mermaid the Peak can produce. This limestone region is a famous 
place. In the sheltered valley to the westward of the Kinderscout is the village 
of Castleton, almost covered in by high hills on all sides. It was here upon a 

70 



BESS OF HARDU-ICKE. 



7* 



bold cliff to the southward of the village that " Peveril of the Peak" built his 
renowned castle at the time of the Norman Conquest, of which only the ruins 
of the keep and part 
of the outer walls 
remain. Almost in- 
accessible, it possess- 
ed the extraordinary 
powers of defence 
that were necessary 
in those troublous 
times, and here its 
founder £ave a "rand 
tournament, to which 




PEVERIL CASTLE, CASTLETON. 



young knights came 
from far and near, the 
successful knight ot 
Lorraine being re- 
warded by his daugh- 
ter's hand. In the 
time of Edward III. 
this " Castle of the 
Peak" reverted to the 
Crown, but now it is 
held by the Duke of 
Devonshire. Under the hill on which the ruins stand is the " Cavern of the 
Peak," with a fine entrance in a gloomy recess formed by a chasm in the rocks. 
This entrance makes a Gothic arch over one thousand feet wide, above which 
the rock towers nearly three hundred feet, and it is chequered with colored 
stones. Within is a vast flat-roofed cavern, at the farther side being a lake 
over which the visitors are ferried in a boat. Other caverns are within, the 
entire cave extending nearly a half mile, a little river traversing its lull length. 
There are more and similar caverns in the neighborhood. 

BESS OF HARDWICKE. 

One of the great characters of the sixteenth century was Elizabeth, Countess 
of Shrewsbury, familiarly known as " Bess of Hardwicke," where she was born, 
and who managed to outlive four husbands, thus showing what success is in 
store for a woman of tact ami business talent. She was a penniless bride at 
fourteen, when she married an opulent gentleman of Derbyshire named Barley, 



72 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



who left her at fifteen a wealthy widow. At the age of thirty she married 
another rich husband, Sir William Cavendish, the ancestor of the Dukes of 
Devonshire, who died in 1557, leaving her again a widow, but with large 
estates, for she had taken good care to look after the proper marriage settle- 
ments; and in fact, even in those early days, a pretty good fortune was neces- 




-.">.;'...-•' 
1 



HARDWICKE HALL. 

sary to provide for the family of eight children Sir 
William left her. She next married Sir William 
Loe, who also had large estates and was the cap- 
tain of the king's guard, the lady's business tact procuring in advance of the 
wedding the settlement of these estates upon herself and her children — a hard 
condition, with which, the historian tells us, " the gallant captain, who had a 
family by a former marriage, felt himself constrained to comply or forego his 
bride." But in time the captain died, and his estates all went to the thrifty lady, 
to the exclusion of his own family; and to the blooming widow, thus made for the 
third time, there came a-courting the Earl of Shrewsbury; the earl had numerous 
offspring, and therefore could hardly give Bess all his possessions, like her other 
husbands, but she was clever enough to obtain her object in another way. As 
a condition precedent to accepting the earl, she made him marry two of his 
children to two of hers, and after seeing these two weddings solemnized, the 



BESS OF HARDWICKE. 



73 



earl led her to the altar for the fourth time at the age of fifty ; and we are told 
that all four of these weddings were actual "love-matches." But she did not 
get on well with the earl, whose correspondence shows she was a little shrew- 
ish, though in most quarrels she managed to come off ahead, having by that time 
acquired experience. When the earl died in 1 590, and Bess concluded not again 
to attempt matrimony, she was immensely rich and was seized with a mania for 
building, which has left to the present day three memorable houses : Hardwicke 
Hall, where she lived, Bolsover Castle, and the palace of Chatsworth, which she 
began, and on which she lavished the enormous sum, for that day, of $400,000. 
The legend runs that she was told that so long as she kept building her life 
would be spared — an architect's ruse possibly; and when finally she died it 
was during a period of hard frost, when the masons could not work. 

Hardwicke Hall, near Mansfield, which the renowned Bess has left as one of 
her monuments, is about three hundred years old, and approached by a noble 
avenue through a spacious park ; it is still among the possessions of the Cav- 
endish family and in the Duke of Dev- 
onshire's estates. The old hall where 
Bess was born almost touches the new 
one that she built, and which bears the 
initials of the proud and determined 
woman in many places outside and in. 
It was here that Mary Queen of Scots 
was held in captivity part of the time 
that she was placed by Queen Elizabeth 
in the custody of the Earl of Shrewsbury, 
and her statue stands in the hall. There 
is an extensive picture-gallery contain- 
ing many historical portraits, and also 
fine state-apartments. The mansion is 
a lofty oblong Stone Structure, with tall Elizabethan staircase, hardwicke hall. 
square towers at each corner, the architecture being one of the best specimens 
of the Elizabethan Period ; on the side, as viewed from the park, the hall seems 
all windows, which accounts for the saying of that neighborhood : 

"Hardwicke Hall, more glass than wall." 

The ruins of the old hall, almost overgrown with ivy, are picturesque, but from 
everywhere on the ancient or on the modern hall there peer out the initials 
" E. S.," with which the prudent Bess was so careful to mark all her posses- 
sions. 

in 




; i 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



BOLSOVER CASTLE. 

The noted Bolsover Castle, which Hess also built, though her son finished it 
after her death, stands in a magnificent position on a high plateau not far from 
Chesterfield, overlooking a wide expanse of Derbyshire. The present castle 
replaced an ancient structure that had fallen into ruin, and was supposed to 

have been built by " Peveril ot 
the Peak ;" it was fortified dur- 
ing King fohn's time, and traces 
of the fortifications still remain ; 
it was repeatedly besieged and 
taken by assault. The present 
building is a square and lofty 
mansion ot castellated appear- 
ance, with towers at the corners 
built of brown stone ; in it the 
Earl of Newcastle, who subse- 
quently inherited it, spent on 
one occasion ^75,000 in enter- 
taining King Charles 1.. the en 
tire country round being invited 
to come and attend the king: Hen 
fonson performed a play lor his 
amusement. I ,ord Clarendon speaks ol the occasion as " such an excess oi least - 
ing as had scarce ever been known in England before." It now belongs to the 
1 hike of Portland, and has fallen into partial decay, with trees growing in some of 
the deserted apartments and ivy creeping alone; the walls. Visitors describe it 
as aghosdy house, with long vaulted passages, subterranean chambers, dungeon- 
like holes in the towers, ami mysterious spaces beneath the vaults whence come 
weird noises. When Mr. fennings visited Bolsover recently he described it as 
like a haunted house, and after examining the apartments, in which most things 
seemed going to decay, he went down stairs, guided by an old woman, to the 
cellars and passages that are said to be the remains of the original Norman 
castle. A chamber with a high vaulted roof was used as a kitchen, ami an 
ancient stone passage connected it with a crypt; beneath this, she told him. 
there was a church, never opened since the days of Peveril. Their voices had 
:\ hollow sound, and their footsteps awakened echoes as if from a large empty 
space beneath; the servants, she said, were afraid to come down where they 
were, excepting by twos and threes, and she added: " Main people have seen 




THE WYE AND THE DERWENT. 



75 



things here besides me; something bad has been done here, sir, and when they 
open that church below they'll find it out. Just where you stand by that door 
I have several times seen a lady and gentleman — only for a moment or two, 
for they come like a Hash ; when I have been sitting in the kitchen, not think- 
ing of any such thing, they stood there — the gentleman with ruffles on, the 
lady with a scarf round her waist; I never believed in ghosts, but I have seen 
them. I am used to it now, and don't mind it, but we do not like the noises, 
because they disturb us. Not long ago my husband, who comes here at night, 
and I, could not sleep at all, and we thought at last that somebody had got shut 
up in the castle, for some children had been here that day; so we lit a candle and 
went all over it, but there was nothing, only the noises following us, and keep- 
ing on worse than ever after we left the rooms, though they stopped while we 
were in them.'' The old woman's tale shows the atmosphere there is about 
this sombre and ghostly castle of Bolsover. 



THE WYE AND THE DERWENT. 
These two noted rivers take their rise in the Derbyshire hills, and, coming 
together at Rowsley near the pretty Peacock Inn, flow down to the sea through 




THE CRESCENT, BUXTON. 

the valleys of the Wye, the Trent, and the Humber. Rising in the limestone 
hills to the north of Buxton, the Wye flows past that celebrated bath, where 
the Romans first set the example of seeking its healing waters, both hot and 
cold springs gushing from the rocks in close proximity. It stands nine hun- 
dred feet above the sea, its nucleus, "The Crescent," having been built by the 
Duke of Devonshire; and the miraculous cures wrought by St. Mary's Well 
are noted by Charles Cotton among the Wonders of the Peak. From Buxton 



7 6 



ENGLAND, P/( 77 'RESQUE AND D£St RIPTIVE. 



the Wye follows a romantic glen to Bakewell, the winding valley being availed 
of, by frequent tunnels, viaducts, and embankments, as a route for the Midland 
Railway. In this romantic glen is the remarkable limestone crag known as 
Chee for, where the curving valley contracts into a narrow gorge. The gray 
limestone cliffs are in many places overgrown with ivy, while trees tind root- 
ing-places in their fissures. Tributary brooks fall into the Wye, all flowing 
through miniature dales th.it disclose successive beauties, and then at a point 
where the limestone hills recede from the river, expanding the valley, Bakewell 
is reached. Here are also mineral springs, but the most important place in 
the town is the parish church, parts ot which are seven hundred years old. It is 
a picturesque building, cruciform, with a spire, and is rich in sepulchral remains, 
containing the ancestors of the Duke of Rutland — who owns the town — in the 
tombs of a long line of Vernons and Manners. In the churchyard are several 

curious epitaphs, among them that oi John Pale and his two wives, 

the inscription concluding, 

•■ A pel iod's i ome to .ill their to) (some In es ; 
The good man's quiet— still are both his wives." 

In this churchyard is also the well known epitaph often 
quoted : 

•• Beneath a sleeping infant lies, to earth whose body lent, 

More glorious shall hereafter rise, tho' not more innocent. 

When the archangel's trump shall blow, and souls to bodies join, 

Millions will wish their lues below had been as short as thine." 
BAKEWELL I in R.I n. 




HADDON HALL. 

Three miles below Bakewell, near the Wye, is one of the most famous old 
mansions of England — 1 [addon I fall. This ancient baronial home, with its 
seius oi houses, its courtyards, towers, embattled walls, and gardens, stands 
on the side ol a hill sloping down to the Wye, while the railway has pierced a 
tunnel through the hill almost underneath the structure. The buildings sur- 
round two courtyards paved with large stones, and cover a space of nearly 
three hundred feet square. Outside the arched entrance-gate to the first court- 
yard is a low thatched cottage used as a porter's lodge. 1 [addon is maintained, 
not as a residence, but to give as perfect .in idea as possible of a baronial hall 
o! the Middle Ages. To get to the entrance the visitor toils up a rather sleep 
hill, and on the \\a\ passes two remarkable yew trees, cut to represent the 
crests ot the two families whose union lw a romantic marriage is one of the 
traditions ot this famous place, (hie yew represents the peacock of Manners, 



HAD DON HALL. 



77 



the present ducal house of Rutland, and the other the boar's head of Vernon. 
Parts of this house, like so many structures in the neighborhood, wen- built in 
the time of " Peveril of the Peak," and its great hall was the "Martindale Hall " 
of Scott's novel, thus coming down to us through eight centuries, and nearly 
all the buildings are at least four hundred years old. 

bantering the gateway, the porter's guard-room is seen on the right hand, 
with the ancient "peephole" through which he scanned visitors before admit- 
ting them. Mounting the steps to the first courtyard, which is on a lower 
level than the other, the chapel and the hall are seen on either hand, while in 
front are the steps leading to the state-apartments. The buildings are not 
lofty, but there are second-floor rooms in almost all parts, which were occupied 
by the household. There is an extensive ball-room, while the Eagle Tower 




IIAhlHlN IIAI.I., FROM THE WYE. 



ri ;es at one corner of the court. Many relics ot the olden time are preserved 
in these apartments. The ancient chapel is entered by an arched doorway from 
the court, and consists of a nave, chancel, and side aisle, with an antique 
Norman font and a large high-back pew used by the family. After passing 
the court, the banquet-hall is entered, thirty-five by twenty-five feet, and rising 
to the lull height ol the building. In one of the doorways is a bracket to 
which an iron ring is attached, which was used, as we are told, "to enforce the 
laws of conviviality." When a guest failed to drink his allowance of wine he 
was suspended by the wrist to this ring, and the liquor he failed to pour down 
his throat was poured into his sleeve. A tall screen at the end of the room 
formed the front of a gallery, where on great occasions minstrels discoursed 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




sweet music, while at the opposite end the lord and his honored guests sat on 

a raised dais. Here still stands the old 
table, while behind the dais a flight of 
stairs leads up to the state-apartments. 
Stags' heads and antlers of great age are 
on the walls. Another door opens out of 
the banquet-hall into the dining-room, the 
end of which is entirely taken up with a 
tine Gothic window displaying the Ver- 
non arms and quarterings. This room is 
elaborately wainscoted. The royal arms 
are inscribed over the fireplace, and below 
them is the Vernon motto carved in Gothic 

letters: 

" Drede God ami Honour the Kyng." 

An exquisite oriel window looks out from 
this room over the woods and grounds 
ot I [addon, the recess bearing on one 
ot its panels the head oi Will Somers, 
who was Henry VIII.'s jester. The 
drawing room, which is over the dining-room, is hung with old tapestry, above 
which is a frieze of ornamental mouldings. A pretty recessed window also 
gives from this room a delightful view over the grounds. 

The <^em of 1 [addon is the long gallery or ball-room, which extends over 
one hundred feet along one side ot the inner court: the semicircular wooden 
steps leading to this apartment are said to have been cut from a single tree 
that grew in the park. The gallery is wainscoted in oak in semicircular arched 
panels, alternately large and small, surmounted by a frieze and a turreted and 
battlemented cornice. The ceiling is elaborately carved in geometric patterns, 
and the tracery contains the alternating arms and crests of Vernon and Man- 
ners ; the remains are still visible oi the rich gilding and painting oi this ceil- 
ing. In the anteroom paintings are hung, and from it a strongly-barred door 
opens upon a flight o! stone steps leading down to the terrace and garden : 
this is "Dorothy Vernon's Poor;" and across the garden another (light of 
steps leading to the terrace is known as " Dorothy Vernon's Steps." It was 
the gentle maiden's flight through this door and up these steps to elope with 
[ohn Manners that carried the old house and all its broad lands into the pos- 
session («f the family now owning it. The state bedroom is hung with Gobelin 



ENTRANCl i" I nr B INQ1 I r HAIL, 
HADDON HALL. 



HADDON 1IAI.L. 



79 



tapestry, illustrating Esop's fables; the state bed is fourteen feet high, and fur- 
nished in green silk velvet and white satin, embroidered by needlework, and 
its last occupant was George IV. The kitchen and range of domestic offices 
are extensive, and show the marvellous amount of cooking that was carried on 
in the hospitable days of Haddon ; the kitchen has a ceiling supported by mass- 
ive beams and a solid oak column in the centre; there are two huge (.re- 
places, scores of stoves, spits, pothooks, and hangers, large chopping-blocks, 
dressers, and tables, with attendant bakehouses, ovens, pantries, and larders; 
among the relics is an enormous salting-trough hollowed out ol one immense 
block of wood. Beyond the garden or lawn, one hundred and twenty feel 
square, extends the terrace, planted with ancient yews, whose gnarled roots 




III! I I.KKAi E, HADDON HALL. 



intertwine with and displace the stones. This terrace extends the full width 
of the outer or upper garden, and gives a charming view of the southern front 
of the hall. 

More romance hangs about Haddon than probably any other old baronial 
hall in England, and it has therefore been for years an endless source ol 
inspiration for poets, artists, and novelists. Mrs. Radcliffe here laid some of 
the scenes of the Mysteries of. Udolpho. Bennett's " King of the Peak " was 
Sir George Vernon, the hospitable owner of Haddon. Scott has written of it, 
a host of artists have painted its most attractive features, and many a poet has 
sung of the 

" Hall of wassail which has run;,' 

To the unquestioned 1). iron's jest: 
Dim old chapel, where were hung 

Offerings of the o'erfraught breast; 
Mos, -i lad terrace, strangely still, 

Broken shaft and crumbling frieze — 
Still as lips that used to fill 

With bugle-blasts the morning breeze." 

But, unlike most baronial strongholds, the history of Haddon tells only the 



8o ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



romance of peace, love, and hospitality. It came by marriage into the pos- 
session of the Vernons soon after the Conquest; one of them, Sir Henry 
Vernon of Haddon, was appointed governor of Prince Arthur by Henry VII. 
His grandson, Sir George Vernon, lived in such princely magnificence at Had- 
don that he was known as the "King of the Peak;" his initials, " G. V.," are 
carved in the banquet-hall. Around his youngest daughter, Dorothy, gathers 
the chief halo of romance. The story in brief is, that her elder sister, being the 
affianced bride of the son of the Marl of Derby, was petted and made much of, 
while Dorothy, at sweet sixteen, was kept in the background. She formed an 
attachment for John Manners, son of the Earl of Rutland, but this her family 
violently opposed, keeping her almost a prisoner: her lover, disguised as a 
forester, lurked for weeks in the woods around Haddon, obtaining occasionally 
a stolen interview. At length on a festal night, when the ball-room was filled 
with guests summoned to celebrate the approaching nuptials of the elder sis- 
ter, and every one was so wrapped up in enjoyment that there was no time to 
watch Dorothy, the maiden, unobserved, stole out of the ball-room into the ante- 
room, and through the door, across the garden, and up the steps to the ter- 
race, where her lover had made a signal that he was waiting. In a moment 
she was in his arms, ami rode away with him in the moonlight all night, across 
the hills of Derbyshire, and into Leicestershire, where they were married next 
morning. It was the old story — an elopement, a grand row, and then all was 
forgiven. Sir George Vernon had no sons, and his daughters divided his 
estate, Haddon going to Dorothy, who thus by her elopement carried the 
famous hall over to the family of Manners. Dorothy died in 15S4. leaving 
four children, the oldest. Sir George Manners, living at Haddon and maintain- 
ing its hospitable reputation. Dying in 1679, his son, John Manners, who was 
the ninth Earl of Rutland, became the master of Haddon, and "kept up the 
good old mansion at a bountiful rate," as the chronicler tells us. He kept one 
hundred and forty servants, and had so many retainers and guests that every 
da, die tables in the old banquet-hall were spread as at a Christmas least. 
The earl was raised to the rank of duke, and his son John, Duke o\ Rut- 
land, known as the "Old Mail of the Hill," died in 1770. since which time the 
family have not used the hall as a place of residence, having gone to Belvoir 
in Leicestershire. Its present owner is the sixth Duke of Rutland, Charles 
Cecil Manners, and the descendant of the famous Dorothy. There are few- 
places, even in England, that have the fame of Haddon, and it is one ot the 
chief spots sought out by the tourist. The duke maintains it just as it existed 
centuries ago, with the old furniture and utensils, so as to reproduce as iaith- 
fully as possible the English baronial hall ot his ancestors. 



CHATSWORTH. 



Si 



CHATSWORTH. 

Below Haddon Hall the valley of the Wye broadens, with yet richer scenery, 
as it approaches the confluence of the Wye and Derwent at Rowslev. where 
the quaint old Peacock Inn, which was 
the manor-house of Haddon, bears over 
the door the date 1653, and the crest 
of the ducal House of Rutland, a pea- 
cock with tail displayed. Ascending 
for a short distance the valley of the 
Derwent, which washes the bases of 
the steep limestone hills, we come to 
Chatsworth. In sharp contrast with 
the ancient o-lories of Haddon is this 
modern ducal palace, for whose mag- 
nificence Bess of Hardwicke laid the rHE •■ peacock," from i-he road. 
foundation. This "Palace of the Peak" stands in a park covering over two 
thousand acres ; the Derwent flows in front, over which the road to the palace 





CHATSWORTH HOUSE, FK11.M THE SOUTH-WEST. 



82 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




MARBLE DOORWAY TO 
STATE DRAWING-ROOM 



is carried by a fine bridge. From the river a lawn gently slopes upward to the 

buildings, and the wooded hill which rises sharply behind them is surmounted 
by a hunting-tower, embosomed in trees. A herd of at 
least a thousand deer roam at will over the park, and have 
become very tame. Chatsworth is a brownish-yellow build- 
ing, square and flat-topped, with a modern and more orna- 
mental winy. Its front extends full)- six hundred feet, and 
in parts it is of that depth. The estate was bought in the 
sixteenth century by Sir William Cavendish, who built the 
original house, a quadrangular building with turrets, which 
was greatly extended by his wife. It was used as a fortress 
in the Civil Wars, and was considerably battered. The first 
Duke of Devonshire about the year 1700 rebuilt the man- 
sion, employing the chief architects, artists, designers, and 
wood-carvers of his time, among them Sir Christopher 
Wren. In the grounds, not far from the bridge over the 

Derwent, is the "Bower of Mary Queen of Scots." There is a small, clear 

lake almost concealed by foliage, in the centre of which is a tower, and on the 

top a grass-grown garden, where are also several fine trees. Here, under 

guard, thecaptive was 

permitted to take the 

air. In those days 

she looked out upon 

a broad expanse ol 

woods and moorland ; 

now all around has 

been converted into 

gardens and a park. 

Entering the house 

through a magnificent 

gateway, the visitor 

is taken into the en- 
trance-hall, where the 

frescoes represent the 

life and death of Julius 

Caesar; then up the 

grand staircase of amethyst and variegated alabaster guarded by richly-gilded 

balustrades. The gorgeously-embellished chapel is wainscoted with cedar, and 

has a sculptured altar made of Derbyshire marbles. The beautiful drawing- 




iTATE DRAWING-ROOM. C'H A i'MVOK I'H. 



CHATS WORTH. 



83 



room opens into a series of state-apartments lined with choice woods and 
hung with Gobelin tapestries representing the cartoons of Raphael. Mag- 
nificent carvings and rare paintings adorn the walls, while the richest decora- 
tions are everywhere displayed. Over the door of the antechamber is a quill 
pen so finely carved that it almost reproduces the real feather. In the Scarlet 




STATE HEDKOU.M, CHATSWORTH. 



Room are the bed on which George II. died and the chairs and footstools used 
at the coronation of George III. On the north side of the house is another 
stairway of oak, also richly gilded. In the apartments replacing those where 
Mary Queen of Scots lived are her bed-hangings and tapestries. There is an 
extensive library with many rare books and manuscripts, and a sculpture- 
gallery, lined with Devonshire marble, containing many statues and busts, and 
also two recumbent lions, each nine feet long and four feet high and weighing 
four tons, and carved out of a solid block of marble. The final enlargement 
of Chatsworth was completed about forty years ago, when Queen Victoria made 
a state visit and was given a magnificent reception by the Duke of Devonshire. 



8 4 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



The gardens at Chatsworth are as noted as the house, and are to many 
minds the gem of the estate. They cover about one hundred and twenty-two 
acres, and are so arranged as to make a beautiful view out of every window 
of the palace. All things are provided that can add to rural beauty — foun- 
tains, cascades, running streams, lakes, rockeries, orange-groves, hot-houses, 
woods, sylvan dells — and no labor or expense is spared to enhance the 
attractions of trees, flowers, and shrubbery. From a stone temple, which it 




Tin: S( ULPTURE-GALLERY, CHATSWORTH. 



completely covers, the great cascade flows down among dolphins, sea lions, 
and nymphs, until it disappears among the rocks and seeks an underground 
outlet into the Derwent. Enormous stones weighing several tons are nicely 
balanced, so as to rock at the touch or swing open tor gates. Others overhang 
the paths as if a gust of wind might blow them down. In honor of the visit 
of the Czar Nicholas in 1S44 the great "Emperor Fountain" was constructed, 
which throws a column of water to an immense height. The grounds are filled 
with trees planted by kings, queens, and great people on their visits to the 
palace. The finest of all the trees is a noble Spanish chestnut of sixteen feet 



MATLOCK AND DOVEDALE. 



85 




GATEWAY TO STABLE. 



girth. Weeping willows do not grow at Chatsworth, but they have provided 
one in the form of a metal tree, contrived so as to discharge a deluge of rain- 
drops from its metallic leaves and boughs when a secret spring is touched. 
The glory of the Chatsworth gardens, however, is the conservatory, a beautiful 
structure of glass and iron covering nearly an acre, the arched roof in the 
centre rising to a height of sixty-seven feet. In this famous hot-house are the 

rarest palms and tropical plants. It was designed by 
Joseph Paxton, the duke's head-gardener, and, enlarg- 
ing the design, Paxton constructed in the same way the 
London Crystal Palace for the Exhibition of 1851, for 
which service he was knighted. Besides this rare col- 
lection of hot-house plants, the famous Victoria Regia 
is in a special house at Chatsworth, growing in a tank 
thirty-four feet in diameter, the water being maintained 
at the proper temperature and kept constantly in motion 
as a running stream. The seed for this celebrated plant 
was brought from Guiana, and it first bloomed here in 
1849. Some fifty persons are employed in the gardens 
and grounds, besides the servants in the buildings, showing the retinue neces- 
sary to maintain this great show-palace, for that is its chief present use, the 
Duke of Devonshire seldom using it as a 
residence, as he prefers the less preten- 
tious but more comfortable seat he pos- 
sesses at Bolton in Yorkshire. North of 
Chatsworth Park, near Baslow, on top of a 
hill, is the strange mass of limestone which 
can be seen from afar, and is known as the 
Eagle Rock. 



MATLOCK AND DOVEDALE. 

Retracing the Derwent to the Wye again, 
the valley of the latter is open below for 
several miles, and then as Matlock is ap- 
proached a mass of limestone stretching 
across the valley seems to bar all egress, 
and the river plunges through a narrow 
glen. The bold gray crags of the High 
Tor rise steeply on the left hand, and the 
gorge not being wide enough for both 




HIGH TOR, MATLOCK. 



86 



l VGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 






river and railway, the latter pie 



rces a tunnel through the 




High Tor. The river bends sharply to the right, and the 
village makes a long; street along the hank and rises 
in terraces up the steep hill behind. These are the 
/ "Heights of Abraham," while the pretty 
slope below the High Tor is the " Lovers' 
Walk." Matlock is beautifully situated, 
and its springs are in repute, while the 
caves in the neighborhood give plenty 
of opportunity for that kind of explor- 
ation. The Derbyshire marbles are 
quarried all about, ami mosaic manu- 
facture is carried on. It was near Mat 
lock that Arkwright first set up his 
cotton-spinning machine, and when for- 
tune and lame hail made him Sir Richard 
Arkwright he built Willersley Castle for 
his home, on the banks of the Derwent. 
The valley of the little river Dove also 
presents some fine scenery, especially 
in tin- fantastic shapes of its rocks. The 
river runs between steep hills fringed 
with ash and oak and hawthorn, and Dovedale can be pursued for miles with 
interest. One ol its famous resorts is the old and comfortable Ixaak Walton 



I 

THE STRA1 re, lxi\ I D UK, 




R Wks OF I UK DOVE 



BEAUCHTEF ABBEY. 



8 7 



anglers. In 1 )ovedale are the 

Twelve Apostles, the Tissing- 

Pickering Tor, the caverns 

ove Holes, and Reynard's Hall, 
stream is full of memories of 




TISSINGTON si'IRF.S. 

those celebrated fishermen ot two centuries ayo, Walton and his friend Cotton. 



BEAUCH1 EF ABBEY. 

Before leaving Derbyshire the ruin of Beauchief Abbey, which gave the 
name of Abbey Dale to one of the pleasant vales on the eastern border of 
the count)', must not be forgotten. It was built seven hundred years ago, and 
there remains but a single fragment of this famous religious house, the arch of 
the great east window. Singularly enough, under the same roof with the abbey 
was built an inn, and at a short distance there is a hermitage : the hermit's cave 
is scooped out of a rock elevated above the valley and overhung with foliage. 
We are told that a pious baker lived in the town ot Derby who was noted ior 
his exemplary life: the Virgin Mary, as a proof ot his faith, required him to 
relinquish all his worldly goods and go to Deepdale and lead a solitary life 
in Christ's service. He did as he was told, departed from Derby, but had no 
idea where he was to go ; directing his footsteps towards the east, he passed 
through a village, and heard a woman instruct a o;irl to drive some calves to 
Deepdale. Regarding this as an interposition of Providence, the baker, 
encouraged, asked where was Deepdale ; the woman told the girl to show 
him. Arrived there, he found it marshy land, distant trom any human habita- 
tion ; but, seeking a rising ground, he cut a small dwelling in a rock under the 
side of a hill, built an altar, ami there spent day and night in the Divine ser- 
vice, with hunger and cold, thirst and want. Now, it happened that a person 



88 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



of great consequence owned this land — Ralph, the son of Geremund — and 
coming- to the woods to hunt, he saw smoke rising from the hermit's cave, and 
was filled with astonishment that an)- one should have dared to establish a 
dwelling there without his permission. Going to the place, he found the her- 
mit clothed in old rags and skins, and, inquiring about his case, Ralph's anger 
changed to pity. To show his compassion, he granted the hermit the ground 
where the hermitage stood, and also for his support the tithe of a mill not far 
away. The tradition further relates "that the old Enemy of the human race" 
then endeavored to make the hermit dissatisfied with his condition, but "he 
resolutely endured all its calamities," and ultimately he built a cottage and 
<>rator\-, and ended his days in the service of God. After his death, Ralph's 
daughter prevailed upon her husband to dedicate Deepdale to religious uses, 
and he inviting the' canons, they built the abbe)-. We are told in Howitt's 
Forest Minstrel ol the wonder caused by the construction of the abbey, 
and also how in later years the monks became corrupted by prosperity. A 
place is shown to visitors where the wall between the chapel and the inn gave 
way to the thirst)- zeal of the monks, and through an opening their favorite 
liquor was handed. The Forest Minstrel tells us they 

" Forsook missal and mass 
To chant o'er a bottle or shrive a las 3 ; 
No matin's bell called them up in the morn, 
Hut the yell of the hounds and sound of the horn; 
\o penance the monk in his cell could sta) 
Hut a broken leg or a rainy day: 
The pilgrim that came to the abbe) door, 
With the feet of the fallow-deer found it nailed o'ei : 
The pilgrim that into the kitchen was led, 
On Sir Gilbert's venison there was fed, 
And saw skins and antlers hang o'er his head.'' 

STAFFORD AM) TRENT HAM. 

The rivers which drain the limestone hills of Derbyshire unite to form the 
1 icnt, and this stream, after a winding and picturesque course through Mid- 
land England towards the eastward, flows into the Humber, and ultimately ' 
into the North Sea. Its first course after leaving Derby is through Stafford- 
shire, one of the great manufacturin<>- counties of England, celebrated for its 
potteries, whose product Josiah Wedgewood so greatly improved. The county- 
seat is Stafford, on the Sow River, not far from the Trent Valley, and on a high 
hill south-west of the town are the remains of the castle of the Barons of 
Stafford, originall) built a thousand years ago by the Saxons to keep the Danes 



STAFFORD AND TREXTHAM. 



8 9 



in check. This castle was destroyed and rebuilt by William the Conqueror; 
again destroyed and again rebuilt by Ralph de Stafford in Edward III.'s reign. 
In the Civil Wars this castle was one of the last strongholds of King Charles I., 
but it was ultimately-taken by Cromwell's troops and demolished, excepting the 
keep ; a massive castellated building of modern construction now occupies its 
place. The river Trent, in its winding course, forms near Trentham a fine 
lake, and the beautiful neighborhood has been availed of for the establishment 
of the splendid residence of the Duke of Sutherland, about a mile west of the 
village, and known as Trentham Hall. The park is extensive, the gardens are 
laid out around the lake, and the noble Italian building, which is of recent con- 




IRENTHAM HALL. 



struction, has a fine campanile tower one hundred feet high, and occupies a 

superb situation. The old church makes part of Trentham Hall, and contains 

monuments of the duke's family and ancestors, the Leveson-Gowers, whose 

extensive estates cover a wide domain in Staffordshire. Trentham, which is 

in the pottery district and not far from Newcastle-under-Lyme, was originally 

a monastery, founded by St. Werburgh, niece of /Ethelred. She was one of 

the most famous of the Anglo-Saxon saints, and some venerable yews still 

mark the spot where her original house stood, it being known as Tricengham. 

These yews, said to have been planted about that time, form three sides of a 

square. The religious house, rebuilt in William Rufus's reign, was given, at 

the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII., to his brother-indaw, Charles 

Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and it afterwards came into possession of the Lev- 

esons. From the marriage of a daughter of Sir John Leveson with Sir Thomas 

Cower sprang the family of the present ducal house of Sutherland, the head 

of it being created Marquis of Stafford in 1786 and Duke of Sutherland in 

The present duke is the third who has held the title, his mother having 
12 



r X 1 1 
1 °33 



go 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




TKENTHAM HALL — OX Till". TERRACE. 

been the daughter of the Earl of Carlisle — the famous Harriet, Duchess of 
Sutherland. The old Trentham Hall was built in 1633, being rebuilt and en- 
larged by Sir Charles Barry about fifty years ago. 



TAM WORTH AND TUTBURY. 

Staffordshire contains some famous places. In the eastern part of the 
county, bordering Warwick, is the ancient town of Tamworth, standing upon 
the little river Tame ; this was originally a fortification built for defence against 
the Danes, and its castle was founded by Marmion, of whom Scott writes, 

"They hailed Lord Marmion, 

They hailed him Lord of Fontenaye, 
< >f Lutterward and Scrivelbaye, 
Of Tamworth tower and town." 

Tamworth is also Shakespearian ground, lor here Richmond halted on his 



TAMWORTH AND TUTBURY. GI 



march to Bosworth Field, and made a stirring address to inspire His forces for 
the coming combat. In later years Tamworth sent Sir Robert Peel to Parlia- 
ment, and his bronze statue adorns the market-square ; the ruins of the ancient 
castle are almost obliterated, and the present castle is upon higher ground, its 
architecture being of various periods. Tutbury Castle, of which little is left 
but a straesfling: mass of ruins, stands on an eminence overlooking the Dove, 
and crowns a ridge of red sandstone rock : it was a great stronghold, founded 
by John of Gaunt, covering several acres, and was demolished after the Civil 
Wars. This castle, like so many other famous places, was also one of the 
prison-palaces of Mary Queen of Scots ; although the castle is destroyed, yet 
near by is its parish church of St. Mary, founded by Henry de Ferrars in the 
reign of William Rufus, and known then as Ferrars Abbey ; its west end is one 
of the most perfect Norman fronts remaining in England, and it has been care- 
fully restored. Tutbury is known for some of its ancient customs, among them 
the annual bull-running. A minstrel band, after devotions and a long sermon in 
the abbey, had an excellent dinner in the castle, and then repairing to the abbey- 
gate demanded the bull; the prior let the bull out, with his horns and tail cut 
off, his ears cropped, his body greased, and his nostrils filled with pepper to 
make him furious. The bull being let loose, the steward proclaimed that none 
were to come nearer than forty feet, nor to hinder the minstrels, but all were 
to attend to their own safety. The minstrels were to capture the bull before 
sunset, and on that side of the river, but if they failed or he escaped across 
the stream, he remained the lord's property. It was seldom possible to take 
him fairly, but if he was held long enough to cut off some of his hair it was 
considered a capture, and after a bull-baiting he was given to the minstrels. 
Thus originated the Tutbury bull-running, which ultimately degenerated into 
a scene of wild debauchery, often resulting in a terrible riot. The Duke of 
Devonshire, when he came into possession of Tutbury, was compelled to abol- 
ish the custom. About six miles from Stafford is Chartley Castle, dating from 
the Conquest, and belonging to the Earls of Chester and Derby, and subse- 
quently to the famous Earl of Essex, who here entertained Queen Elizabeth, 
and afterwards planned the plot for which she signed his death-warrant. This 
castle has been many years in ruins : it had a circular keep about fifty feet in 
diameter, and the present remains are chiefly the fragments of two round 
towers and part of a wall twelve feet thick, with loopholes constructed for 
shooting arrows at an attacking force. Queen Mary was also imprisoned 
here, and a bed said to have been wrought by her is shown in the village. 
This unfortunate queen seems to have had more prisons and wrought more 
needlework than anv other woman in Britain. 



\. ;\/\ PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



ALTON fOWERS, 



Alton rowers, the superb home o( the Earl ol Shrewsbury, is also in Stafford- 
shire, and is one o\ die famous seats of England. The estate stands on the 
Churnet, and the house and grounds are on one side of its deep valley. The 
present mansion, a modern Godiic structure, was built about fiftj years ago 
on a rock) plateau overlooking the valley. An extensive park surrounds the 
mansion, ami there are several entrances. Ol these Ouicks.il! Lodgfe ushers 
the visitor to a magnificent approach known as the "Earl's Drive," extending 
three miles along the valley of the Churnet, and having its natural advantages 
increased bj the profuse distribution along the route oi statues, busts, and 
ornamental vases. Another entrance is from the railway-station, where is a 
lodge of great beauty, from which the road, about a mile in length, gradually 
ascends to the eminence where the mansion stands. The approach by both 
roads is fine, and dirough the intervening foliage the bowers open upon the 
view — rich in spire, dome, and gable, and with their fair proportions enhanced 
bj the arcades that adorn the house dnA the antique stone setting that brings 
out the majest) of the Gothic architecture. The gardens oi this fine place are 
beautiful, their extent being made apparently greater than in reality by the 
artificially formed terraces and other resources of the landscape artist. The 
grounds are most lavishly ornamented with statuary, vases, temples, and foun- 
tains, while gardening is carried to perfection. There is a grand conservatory, 
containing a palm-house and orangery. From the top o( >\n elaborate Gothic 
temple four stories high there is a fine view, while the Flag bower, a massive 
building with four turrets, and six stories high, is used as an observ atory. There 
is a delightful retreat for the weary sightseer called the Refuge, a fine imitation 
ol Stonehenge, and Ina's Rock, where lna. kin,; of Wessex, held a parliament 
after his battle with the king o\ Mercia. The picturesque ruins of Alton Castle 
and convent are in the grounds, also the ruins of Croxden Abbey and the 
rming Alton Church, which was of Norman foundation. The castle existed 
at the time o( the Conquest, and the domain in [408, through the marriage of 
Maude Neville to [ohn Talbot, was brought into the possession o\ the present 
family, 1 .. ' o; having been afterwards made the first Earl of Shrewsbury'. This 
was the famous English war; vvas so bared in France, where he con- 

ducted brilliant campaigns, that "with his name the mothers stilled their babes." 
lie was killed at the siege of Chatillon in his eightieth year. It was the sixth 
bail ol Shr< kvsburj who married Bess of Hardwicke and made her fourth 
husband. It was the fifteenth Earl o\ Shrewsbury who erected the present 
magnificent structure, with its varied turrets And battlements, for his summer 



SHREWSBURY. 



93 



residence, where before stood a plain house known as Alton Lodge. Upon 
his tomb, in memory ol the wonderful change he wrought in the place, is the 
significant motto : "He made the desert smile." The nineteenth earl is now 
in possession. 

SHR EWSBURY. 

Westward ol Stafford is the hind ol the "proud Salopians," Shropshire, 
through which flows the Severn, on whose banks stands the ancient town 
from which the Earls ol Shrewsbury take their title. We are told that the 




in; i w r. i i: i 



Britons founded this town, and that in Edward the Confessor's time it had 
live churches and two hundred and thirty houses, fifty-one of which were 
cleared away to make room lor the castle erected by Roger de Montgomery, 
a kinsman of William the Conqueror. The Norman king created him Earl of 
Shrewsbury long before the present line of earls began with John Talbot. 
Wars raged around the castle; it was besieged and battered, lor it stood an 
outpost in the borderland of Wales. It was here that Henry IV. assembled 
an army to march against Glendower, and in the following year fought the 
battle of Shrewsbury against Hotspur, then marching to join Glendower. Hot- 



"I 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




FIELD, SHREWSBURY. 



spur's tic uh decided the battle. The Wars ol the Roses were fought around 
the town, and here Henry VII., then the Earl o\ Richmond, slept when going 
to Bosworth Field; and in the Civil Wars King Charles had Shrewsbury's 

support, but Cromwell's 
forces captured it. The 
town is on a fine pen- 
insula almost encircled 
by the Severn, and the 
t asde stands at the en- 
trance to the peninsula. 
Only the square keep 
and part of the inner 
walls remain ol the 
original castle, but a 
fine turret lias been 
added by modern hands. 
In the neighborhood of 
Shrewsbury are the re- 
mains of the Roman city oi Uriconium, said to have been destroyed by the 
Saxons in the sixth century. Shrewsbury has always been famous for pageants, 
its annual show being a grand display bv the trade societies. It is also famous 
for its cakes, of which Shenstone says: 

" Ami here each season do those 
cakes abide, 
Whose honored names the in- 
ventive <.';t\ ow n. 
Rendering through Britain's isle 
Salopia's praises known." 

The great Shrewsbury 

cake is the " simnel." 
made like a pie. the crust 
colored with saffron and 
very thick. It is a con- 
fection said to be unsafe 
when eaten to excess, tor 
an old gentleman, writing 
from melancholy experi- 
ence in 1505. records that "sodden bread which bee called simnels bee verie 
unwholesome." The Shropshire legend about its origin is that a happy couple 




ON BATTLEFIELD ROAD, SHREWSBURY. 



BRIDGENORTH AND WENLOCK ABBEY. 



95 



got into a dispute whether they should have for dinner a boiled pudding or a 
baked pie. While they disputed they got hungry, and came to a compromise by 
first boiling and then baking the dish that was prepared. To the grand result 
of the double process — his name being Simon and her's Nell — the combined 
name of simnel was given. And thus from their happily-settled contention has 
^^ ^ v come Shrewsbury's great cake, of which 

all England acknowledges the merit. 




7 
stain! 



Oil. 



uv. 



BR] DGENORTH A N D WEN LOi I 
A BBEY. 

following down the Severn River from 
Shrewsbury, we come to Bridgenorth, an 
ancient town planted on a steep hill, full ol 
quaint houses, and having an old covered 
market where the country-people gather on 
Saturdays. The lower part is of brick, and 
the upper part is black-and white-timbered, but 
the human love for what is old and familiar is 
bridgenorth. shown by the way in which the people still fill 

i From near Oldbury. U p th,- old market-house, though a fine new one 
2. Keep of the Castle. has recent ly been built. The most prized of the 
houses of this venerable town is a foundry and blacksmith shop 
by the river; it was in this house that Bishop Percy, author oi the 



9 6 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQy \ND DESCRIPTIVE. 




Will 



\\ \-. BORN, 



URIDG1 NORTH. 



Reliques, was born. On the promontory 
oi sandstone, which steeply rises about 
one hundred ami eighty feet above the 
river, the upper part ot the town is built, 
ami here are the ruins oi Bridgenorth 
Castle, which stood in an exceptionally 
strong situation. The red sandstone pre 
dominates here, hut not much ol it remains 
in the castle, there being little left except 
ing a huge fragment ot the massive wall 
oi the keep, which now inclines so much 
on one side from tin' settlement ot the 
foundation as to be almost unsafe. This 
castle was built eighl hundred years ago 
by the third ami last oi' the Norman Earls 
of Shrewsbury; it was held lor King 
Charles in the Civil Wars, and under 
went a month's siege before it sttrren 
dered, when the conquerors destroyed it. 
Bridgenorth is the most picturesque ol 
all the tow us on the Severn, owing to the 
steep promontory up which the houses 
town and the magnificent views from the 



extend from the lower to the uppe 

castle. The communication with the hill is by a series ol Steeply-winding 

alleys, each being almost a continuous stairway : 

the) are known as the 'Steps.'' A bridge with 

projecting bastions crosses the river and connects 

the higher with the lower parts ot' the town, thus 

_ei\ in^ the place its name. 

About twelve miles south east ot" Shrewsbury is 
the village o( Much Wenlock, where there are re- 
mains of a magnificent abbey founded by the Black 
monks, and exhibiting .several o\ the Earl) Eng- 
lish and Gothic stvles oi architecture, but, like 
most else in these parts, it has fallen in ruin, and 
main oi the materials have been carried ott to 
build other houses. Portions oi the nave, Iran 
septs, chapter house, and abbot's house remain. 
the latter being restored and makiflg a tine spe 




LODGE OF MICH WENLOCK ABBEY, 



i . LOW C XSTLE. 



"7 



cimen of ecclesiastical domestic architecture built around a court. An open 
cloister extends the entire length of the house. There are beautiful intersect- 
ing Norman arches in the chapter- 
house. There are some quaint 
old houses in the town — timbered 
structures with bold bow-windows 
— and not a few of them of great 
age. Roger de Montgomery is 
credited with founding Wenlock 
Abbey at the time of the Norman 
Conquest. The site was previously 
occupied by a nunnery, said to have 
been the burial-place of St. Mil- 
bunrh, who was the granddauerh- 
ter of King Penda of Mercia. This 
was a famous religious house in 
its day, and it makes a picturesque 
ruin, while the beauty of the neigh- 
boring scenery shows how careful 
the recluses and religious men of 
old were to cast their lots and build 
their abbeys in pleasant places. 




LUDLOW CASTLE. 
The most important of all the castles in the middle marches of Wales was 
Ludlow, whose grand ruins, mouldered into beauty, stand upon the river Tame, 
near the western border of Shropshire. It was here that the lord president 
of the Council of Wales held his court. Its ruins, though abandoned, have not 
fallen into complete decay, so that it gives a fine representation of the ancient 
feudal border stronghold: it is of great size, with long stretches of walls and 
towers, interspersed with thick masses of foliage and stately trees, while beneath 
is the dark rock on which it is founded. It was built shortly after the Conquest 
by Roger de Montgomery, and after being held by the Norman Earls of 
Shrewsbury it was fortified by Henry I.; then Joyce de Dinan held it, and 
confined Hugh de Mortimer as prisoner in one of the towers, still known as 
Mortimer's Tower. Edward IV. established it as the place of residence for 
the lord president of the Council that governed Wales: here the youthful 
King Edward V. was proclaimed, soon to mysteriously disappear. From Lud- 
low Castle, Wales was governed for more than three centuries, and in Queen 

13 



9 8 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



Elizabeth's time mail)' important additions were made to it. The young Philip 
Sidney lived here, his lather being the lord president; the stone bridge, repla- 
nnig the drawbridge, and the great portal were built at that time. In 1634. 
Milton's " Masque of Comus" was represented here while Earl Bridgewater 
was lord president, one of the scenes being the castle and town of Ludlow: 
this representation was part of the festivities attending the earl's installation 
on Michaelmas Night. It was in Ludlow Castle that Butler wrote part of 











! I 111 <>\\ CASTLE. 

Hudibras. The castle was held tor King Charles, but was delivered up to the 
Parliamentary forces in 1646. The present exterior of the castle denotes its 
former magnificence. The foundations are built into a dark gray rock, and the 
castle rises from the point of a headland, the northern front consisting ot 
square towers with high, connecting embattled walls. In the last century 
trees were planted on the rock and in the deep and wide ditch that guarded 
tin- castle. The chief entrance is by a gateway under a low, pointed arch 
which bears the arms of Queen Elizabeth and of Earl Pembroke. There are 
several acres enclosed, and the keep is an immense square tower of the Early 
Norman, one hundred and ten feet high and ivy-mantled to the top. On its 



LUDLOW CASTLE. 



99 



ground floor is the dungeon, half underground, with square openings in the 
floor connecting with the apartment above. The great hall is now without 
roof or floor, and a tower at the west end is called Prince Arthur's Tower, 
while there are also remains of the old chapel. The ruins have an imposing 
aspect, the towers being richly clustered around the keep. This famous castle 
is now the property of Earl Powis. 

The town of Ludlow adjoins the castle, 
and on approaching it the visitor is struck 
by the fine appearance of the tower of 
the church of St. Lawrence. The church 
is said to be the finest in Shropshire, 
and this tower was built in the time of 
Edward IV. Its chantry is six hundred 
years old, and belonged to the Palmers' 
guild. Their ordinances are still pre- 
served, one of which is to the effect 
that " if any man wishes, as is the cus- 
tom, to keep night-watches with the 
dead, this may be allowed, provided 
that he does not call up ghosts." The 
town is filled with timber-ribbed, par- 
getted houses, one of the most striking 
of these being the old Feathers Inn. 
The exterior is rich in various devices, 
including the feathers of the Prince of 
Wales, adopted as the sign perhaps 
in the days of Prince Arthur, when the 
inn was built. Many of the rooms are 
panelled with carved oak and have 
quaintly moulded ceilings. It is not 
often that the modern tourist has a 
chance to rest under such a venerable roof, for it is still a comfortable hostelrie. 
The ancient priory of Austin Friars was at Ludlow, but is obliterated. 

In the neighborhood of Ludlow are many attractive spots. From the sum- 
mit of the Vignals, about four miles away, there is a superb view over the hills 
of Wales to the south and west, and the land of Shropshire to the northward. 
Looking towards Ludlow, immediately at the foot of the hill is seen the wooded 
valjey of Hay Park: it was here that the children of the Earl of Bridgewater 
were lost, an event that gave Milton occasion to write the " Masque of Comus," 




ENTRANCE To THE COUNCIL-CHAMBER, LUDLOW 
CASTLE. 



IOO 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




and locate its scenes at and 
in the neighborhood of Lud- 
low. Richard's Castle is at 
the southern end of this 
wood, but there is not much 
of the old ruin left in the 
deep dingle. At Downton 
Castle the romantic walks 
in the gardens abound in 
an almost endless variety 
of ferns. Staunton Lacey 
Church, containing Roman- 
esque work, and supposed 
to be older than the Con- 
quest, is also near Ludlow. 
But the grand old castle 
and its quaint and vene- 
rated Feathers Inn are 
the great attractions before 
which all others pale. What 
an amazing tale of revelry, 
pageant, and intrigue they 
could tell were only the 
old walls endowed with 
voice! 



THF- "FEATHERS HOTEL, LUDLOW. 



LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL. 

We are told that in Central Staffordshire churches with spires are rare. 
The region of the Trent abounds in low and simple rather than lofty church- 
towers, but to this rule the cathedral city of Lichfield is an exception, having 
five steeples, of which three beautiful spires — often called the " Ladies of the 
Vale " — adorn the cathedral itself. The town stands in a fertile and gently 
undulating district without ambitious scenery, and the cathedral, which is three 
hundred and seventy-five feet long and its spires two hundred and fifty-eight 
feet high, is its great and almost only glory. It is an ancient place, dating 
from the days of the Romans and the Saxons, when the former slaughtered 
without mercy a band of the early Christian martyrs near the present site of 
the town, whence it derives its name, meaning the "Field of the Dead." This 



L /( HFIELD C I TH1-.DK. 1L. 



IOI 



massacre took place in the fourth century, and in memory of it the city bears 
as its arms "an escutcheon of landscape, with many martyrs in it in several 
ways massacred." In the seventh century a church was built there, and the 
hermit St. Chad became its bishop. His cell was near the present site of 
Stowe, where there was a spring of clear water rising in the heart of a forest, 
and out of the woods 
there daily came a snow- 
white doe to supply him 
with milk. The legend 
tells that the nightingales 
singing in the trees dis- 
tracted the hermit's pray- 
ers, so he besought that 
he might be relieved from 
this trial ; and since that 
time the nightingales in 
the woods of Stowe have 
remained mute. After 
death the hermit-bishop 
was canonized and Lich- 
field flourished, at least 
one of his successors be- 
ing an archbishop. St. 
Chad's Well is still point- 
ed out at Stowe, but his 
Lichfield church Ions' &8TO 
disappeared. A Xorman 
church succeeded it in the 
eleventh century, and has lichfieuj cathedral, west front. 

also been removed, though some of its foundations remain under the present 
cathedral choir. About the yc-ar 1200 the first parts of the present cathedral 
were built, and it was over a hundred years in building. Its architecture is 
Early English and Decorated, the distinguishing features being the three spires, 
the beautiful western front, and the Lady Chapel. The latter terminates in a 
polygonal apse of unique arrangement, and the red sandstone of which the 
cathedral is built gives a warm and effective coloring. Some of the ancient 
bishops of Lichfield were fighting men, and at times their cathedral was made 
into a castle surrounded by walls and a moat, and occasionally besieged. The 
Puritans grievously battered it, and knocked down the central spire. The 




io: 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




cathedral was afterwards rebuilt by 
Christopher Wren, and the work of 
restoration is at present going on. As 
all the old stained glass was knocked 
out of the windows during the Civil 
Wars, several of them have been re- 
filled with fine glass from the abbey 
at Liege. Most of the ancient monu- 
ments were also destroyed during the 
/ sieges, but many fine tombs of more 
modern construction replace them, 
among them being the famous tomb 
by Chantrey of the " Sleeping Chil- 
dren." The ancient chroniclers tell 
bad stories of the treatment this 
famous church received during the 



INTERIOR LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL, LOOKING WES 1 

Civil Wars. When the spire was 
knocked down, crushing the roof, a 
marksman in the church shot Lord 
Brooke, the leader of the Parliament- 
ary besiegers, through his helmet, of 
which the visor was up, and he fell 
dead. The marksman was a deaf and 
dumb man, and the event happened 
on St. Chad's Day. March 2d. The 
loss of their leader redoubled the 
ardor of the besiegers; the)' set a 
battery at work and forced a sur- 
render in three days. Then we are 
told that they demolished monuments, 
pulled down carvings, smashed the 
windows, destroyed the records, set 




LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL, REAR VIEW. 



L It H FIELD CA THE DR. 1 1.. 



I03 



up guard-houses in the cross-aisles, broke up the pavement, every day hunted 
a cat through the church, so as to enjoy the echo from the vaulted roof, and 
baptized a calf at the font. The Royalists, however, soon retook Lichfield, 
and gave King Charles a reception after the battle of Naseby, but it finally 
surrendered to Cromwell in 1646. Until the Restoration of Charles II. the 
cathedral lay in ruins, even the lead having been removed from the roof. In 
1 66 1, Bishop Hacket was consecrated, and for eight years he steadily worked 
at rebuilding, having so far advanced in 1669 that the cathedral was reconse- 
crated with great ceremony. His last work was to order the bells, three of 
which were hung in time to toll at his funeral ; his tomb is in the south aisle 
oi the choir. 

Lichfield has five steeples, grouped together in most views of the town 
from the Vale of Trent, the other two steeples belonging to St. Mary's and 
St. Michael's churches ; the church- 
yard of the latter is probably the 
largest in England, covering seven 
acres, through which an avenue oi 
stately elms leads up to the church. 
The town has not much else in the 
way of buildings that is remarkable. 
In a plain house at a corner of the 
market-place, where lived one Michael 
Johnson, a bookseller, Dr. Samuel 
Johnson, his son, was born in 1709, 
and in the adjacent market-place is 
Dr. Johnson's statue upon a pedestal 
adorned with bas-reliefs : one of these 
represents the "infant Samuel'' sit- 
ting on his father's shoulder to imbibe 
Tory principles from Dr. Sacheverel's 
sermons ; another, the boy carried by 
his schoolfellows ; anil a third displays 
him undergoing a penance lor youth- 
ful disobedience by standing up for an dr. johnson's birthplace, lichfield. 
hour bareheaded in the rain. The "Three Crowns Inn" is also in the mar- 
ket-place, where in 1776 Boswell and Johnson stayed, and, as Boswell writes, 
"had a comfortable supper and got into high spirits," when Johnson "expa- 
tiated in praise of Lichfield and its inhabitants, who, he said, were the most 
sober, decent people in England, were the genteelest in proportion to their 




104 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



wealth, and spoke the purest English." David Garrick went to school to Dr. 
Johnson in the suburbs of Lichfield, at Edial ; Addison lived once at Lichfield; 
and Selwyn was its bishop a few years ago, and is buried in the Cathedral close; 
but the chief memories of the ancient town cluster around St. Chad, Johnson, 
and Garrick. 

LADY GODIVA OF COVENTRY. 

The " three spires " which have so much to do with the fame of Lichfield 
arc reproduced in the less pretentious but equally famous town of Coventry, 
not far away in Warwickshire, but they do not all belong to the same church. 
The Coventry Cathedral was long ago swept away, but the town still has three 
churches oi much interest, and is rich in the old brick-and-timbered architec- 
ture of two and three centuries ago. But the boast of Coventry is Lady 
Godiva, wife oi the Earl of Mercia, who died in 1057. The townsfolk suffered 
under heavy taxes and services, and she besought her lord to relieve them. 
After steady refusals he finally consented, but under a condition which he was 
sure Lady Godiva would not accept, which was none other than that she should 
ride naked from one end of the town to the other. To his astonishment she con- 
sented, and, as Dugdale informs us, "The noble lady upon an appointed day 
got on horseback naked, with her hair loose, so that it covered all her body 
but the legs, and then performing her journey, she returned with joy to her 
husband, who thereupon granted the inhabitants a charter of freedom." The 
inhabitants deserted the streets and barred all the windows, so that no one 
could see her, but, as there are exceptions to all rules, Tennyson writes that 

• line low rhurl, composed of thankless earth, 
The fatal byword of all years to come, 
Boring a little auger-hole, in fear 
Peeped; but his eyes, before they had their will, 
Were shrivelled into darkness in his head. 
And dropt before him. So the Powers who wait 
On noble deeds cancelled a sense misused; 
And she, that knew not, passed." 

Thus has " Peeping Tom of Coventry " passed into a byword, and his statue 
stands in a niche on the front of a house on the High Street, as if leaning out 
of a window — an ancient and battered effigy for all the world to see. Like all 
other things that come down to us by tradition, this legend is doubted, but in 
Coventry there are sincere believers, and " Lady Godiva's Procession " used to 
be an annual display, closing with a fair: this ceremony was opened by relig- 
ious services, after which the procession started, the troops and city authorities, 



COVENTRY. 



io = 



with music and banners, escorting Lady Godiva, a woman made up for the occa- 
sion in gauzy tights and riding a cream-colored horse ; representatives of the 
trades and civic societies followed her. This pageant has fallen into disuse. 
In this ancient city of Coventry there are some interesting memorials of the 
past — the venerable gateway, the old St. Mary's Hall, with its protruding gable 
fronting on the street, coming down to us from the fourteenth century, and 
many other quaint brick and half-timbered 
and strongly-constructed houses that link 
the dim past with the active present. Its tff|||| 
three spires surmount St. Michael's, Trin- 
ity, and Christ churches, and while all are 
tine, the first is the best, being regarded as 
one of the most beautiful spires in Eng- 
land. The ancient stone pulpit ot Trinity 
Church, constructed in the form ot a bal- 
cony of open stone-work, is also much 
admired. St. Michael's Church, which dates 
from the fourteenth century, is large enough 
to be a cathedral, and its steeple is said to 
have been the first constructed. This 
beautiful and remarkably slender spire 
rises three hundred and three feet, its 
lowest stage being an octagonal lantern 
supported by flying buttresses. The sup 
porting tower has been elaborately deco- 
rated, but much of the sculpture has (alien 
into decay, being made of the rich but friable red sandstone of this part of the 
country; the interior of the church has recently been restored. The Coven- 
try workhouse is located in an old monaster)-, where a part of the cloisters 
remain, with the dormitory above ; in it is an oriel window where Queen Eliz- 
abeth on visiting the town is reputed to have stood and answered a reception 
address in rhyme from the "Men of Coventrie " with some doggerel of equal 
merit, and concluding with the words, "Good Lord, what fools ye be!' I he 
good Queen Bess, we are told, liked to visit Coventry to see bull-baiting. As 
we have said, Coventry formerly had a cathedral and a castle, but both have 
been swept away; it was an important stronghold after the Norman Conquest, 
when the Earls of Chester were lords of the place. In the fourteenth century- 
it was fortified with walls of great height and thickness, three miles in circuit 
and strengthened by thirty-two towers, each of the twelve gates being defended 




COVENTRY GATEWAY. 



I 111) 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 








11 



I < t\ ENTRY. 



by a portcullis. A parliament was held 
at Coventry by Henry VI., and Henry 
VII. was heartily welcomed there after 
Bosworth Field ; while the town was 
also a favorite residence of Edward the 
Black Prince. Among the many places 
of captivity for Mary Queen of Scots 
Coventry also figures; the walls were 
mostly knocked down during the Civil 
Wars, ami now only some fragments, 
with one of the old gates, remain. In 
later years it has been chielly cele- 
brated in the peaceful arts in the man- 
ufacture of silks ami ribbons and the 
dyeing of broad-cloth in " Coventry 
true blue;" at present it is the "Cov- 
entry bicycle" that makes Lady Godi- 
va's ancient city famous, and provides 
amusement for youth who are able to 
balance their bodies possibly at the 
expense o! their minds. 



BELVOIR CASTLE. 

In describing the ancient baronial mansion, Haddon Hall, it was mentioned 
that the 1 hikes ol Rutland had abandoned it as their residence about a hundred 
years ago and gone to Belvoir in Leicestershire. Belvoir (pronounced Beever) 
Castle stands on the eastern border of Leicestershire, in a maoniricent situa- 
tion on a high wooded hill, and gets its name from the beautiful view its occu- 
pants enjoy over a wide expanse of country. In ancient times it was a priory, 
and it has been a castle since the Norman Conquest. Many of the large 
estates attached to Belvoir have come down by uninterrupted succession from 
that time to the present Luke of Rutland. The castle itself, however, after the 
Conquest belonged to the Earl of Chester, and afterwards to the family of 
Lord Ros. In the sixteenth century, by a fortunate marriage, the castle passed 
into the Manners family. Thomas Manners was created by Henry VIII. the 
first Earl o\ Rutland, and he restored the castle, which had for some time been 
in ruins. His son enlarged it, making a noble residence. The sixth Earl of 
Rutland had two -mis. we are told, who were murdered by witchcraft at Bel- 
voir throueh the sorcery of three female servants in revenue for their dismissal. 



CHARNWOOD FOREST. 107 



The three " witches " were tried and committed to Lincoln jail. They were a 
mother and two daughters, and the mother before going to the jail wished the 
bread and butter she ate might choke her if guilty. Sure enough, the chronicler 
tells us, she died on the way to jail, and the two daughters, afterwards confess- 
ing their guilt, were executed March 11, 1618. The seventh Earl of Rutland 
received Charles I. at Belvoir, and in the wars that followed the castle was 
besieged and ruined. After the Restoration it was rebuilt, and in finer style. 
The Dukes of Rutland began to adapt it more and more as a family residence, 
.ind, after abandoning Haddon Hall, Belvoir was greatly altered and made a 
princely mansion. It consists ot a quadrangular court, around which are cas- 
tellated buildings, with towers surmounting them, and occupying almost the 
entire summit of the hill. Here the duke can look out over no less than 
twenty-two of his manors in the neighboring valleys. The interior is sump- 
tuously furnished, and has a collection of valuable paintings. A large part of 
the ancient castle was burnt in 181 6. The Staunton Tower, however, still 
exists. It is the stronghold of the castle, and was successfully defended by Lord 
Staunton against William of Normandy. Upon every royal visit the key of 
this tower is presented to the sovereign, the last occasion being a visit of 
Queen Victoria. Belvoir, in the generous hands of the Dukes of Rutland, still 
maintains the princely hospitality of the " King of the Peak." A record kept 
of a recent period of thirteen weeks, from Christmas to Easter, shows that two 
thousand persons dined at the duke's table, two thousand four hundred and 
twenty-one in the steward's room, and eleven thousand three hundred and 
twelve in the servants' hall. They were blessed with good appetites too, for 
they devoured about $7000 worth of provisions, including eight thousand three 
hundred and thirty-three loaves of bread and twenty-two thousand nine hun- 
dred and sixty-three pounds of meat, exclusive of game, besides drinking two 
thousand four hundred bottles of wine and seventy hogsheads of ale. Thus 
does Belvoir maintain the inheritance of hospitable obligation descended from 
Haddon Hall. 

CHARNWOOD FOREST. 

We have now come into Leicestershire, and in that county, north of Leicester 
City, is the outcropping of the earth's rocky backbone, which has been thrust 
up into high wooded hills along the edge of the valley of the Soar for several 
miles, and is known as Charnwood Forest. It hardly deserves the name of a 
forest, however, for most of this strange rocky region is bare of trees, and 
many of the patches of wood that are there are of recent growth. Yet in 
ancient years there was plenty of wood, and a tradition comes down to us that 



[o8 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



in Charnwood once upon a tunc a squirrel could travel six miles on the trees 
without touching the ground, and a traveller journey entirely across the 
forest without seeing the sun. The district consists of two lines of irregular 
ridgy hills, rising three hundred to lour hundred feet above the neighboring 
country. These ridges are separated bya sort of valley like a Norwegian tjord, 
filled with red marl. The rocks are generally volcanic products, with much 
shut-, which is extensively quarried. Granite and sienite are also quarried, 
and at the chief granite-quarry — Mount Sorrel, an eminence which projects 
into the valley of the Soar — was in former times the castle of Hugh Lupus, 
Earl ol Chester. In King John's reign the garrison oi this castle so harassed 
the neighborhood that it was described as the "nest ol the devil and a den 
ol thieves." In Henry lll.'s reign it was captured and demolished; the latter 
late is gradually befalling the hill on which it stood, under the operations of the 

quarrymen. Near these 
quarries is the ancient 
village of ( iroby, which 
was quite a flourishing 
place eight hundred 
years ago, and has not 
grown much since. This 
village belonged to the 
Ferrars family, and an 
heiress ol that family 
was the unfortunate 
Queen Elizabeth Wid- 
vile. About two miles 
away is Bradgate, a spot 
ol rare beauty and in- 
terest, the history oi which is closelj connected with Groby. On the end of 
one ol the ridges oi Charnwood, just where it is sinking down to the level 
oi die surroundinq country, stands Bradgate I louse. The surrounding nark 
is quite wild and bare but there are fine old oaks in the lower portions. From 
die ancient house a beautiful dell, called the Happy Valley, leads to the neigh- 
boring village oi Newtown Linford. Bradgate House was destroyed in the 
early part of the last century by its mistress. The Karl of Suffolk, who then 
owned il, brought his wife, who had no taste for a rural life, from the metropo- 
lis to live there. Her sister in London wrote to inquire how she was getting 
on. She answered, "The house is tolerable, the country a forest, ami the 
inhabitants all brute-,." In reply tfte sister advised, " Set the house on fire, 




RUINS (IF BR VDGATI HOUSE. 






ELIZABETH WIDVILE AND LADY J.IXE GREY. 



TOQ 



and run away by the light of it." The countess took the advice, and Bradgate 

never was rebuilt. 

ULVERSCROFT AND GRACE DIEU ABBEY. 

Charnwood Forest, like almost every other place in England, contains the 
remains of religious houses. There was a priory at Ulverscroft, not far from 
Bradgate, and some picturesque moss-grown remains still exist, said to be the 




RUINS OF ULVERSCROFT I'RIORY. 



finest ruin in Leicestershire. Grace Dieu Abbey was also in the forest, and 
on the dissolution of the monasteries was granted to the Beaumonts ; the ruins 
of this abbey were much frequented by Wordsworth, who dedicated his poems 
to their owner. The Cistercians have in the present century established the 
monastery of Mont St. Bernard in the forest, and brought large tracts under 
cultivation as garden-land. Bardon, the highest hill of Charnwood, which is 
near by, rises nine hundred feet, an obtuse-angled triangular summit that can 
be seen for miles away : not far from the forest are several famous places. 
The abandoned castle of Ashby de la Zouche has been made the site of an 
interesting town, deriving much prosperity from its neighboring coal-mines: 
this castle was built by Lord Hastings, and here dwelt Ivanhoe. The 
ruins of the tower, chapel, and great hall are objects of much interest, and in 
the chapel is the "finger pillory" for the punishment of those who were dis- 
orderly in church. Staunton Harold, the seat of Earl Ferrars, is north of the 
town, while about nine miles to the north-east of Ashby is Donington Hall, 



I IO 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



the palace of the Marquis of Hastings: this estate is connected with Langley 
Priory, three miles southward; the latter domain belonged to the Cheslyns 
fifty years ago, and had an income of S4Q,ooo a year. Between lavish hospi- 
tality and ruinous lawsuits the entire property was eaten up, and Richard Ches- 
lyn became practically a pauper; but he bore ill-fortune with good -race, and 
maintained his genial character to the last, being always well received at all 
the noble houses where he formerly visited. Sir Bernard Burke writes that 

Cheslyn "at dinner- 
parties, at which 
every portion of his 
dress was the cast- 
off clothes ot his 
grander friends, al- 
ways looked and 
was the gentleman ; 
he made no secret 
of his poverty or of 
the generous hands 
that had ' rigged 
him out.' ' This 
coat,' he has been 
heard to say, 'was 
Radclifife's ; these 

pants, Granby's ; this waistcoat, Scarborough's.' His cheerfulness never tor- 
sook him ; he was the victim of others' mismanagement and prolusion, not 
of his own." John Shakespear, the famous linguist, whose talents were dis- 
covered by Lord Moira, who had him educated, was a cowherd on the Langley 
estate. The poor cowherd afterwards bought the estates for $700,000, and 
they were his home through lite. 

ELIZABETH WIDVILE AND LADY JANE GREY. 

Charnwood Forest is also associated in history with two unfortunate women. 
Elizabeth Widvile was the wife o\ Sir John Grey of Groby, who lost his life and 
estate in serving the House of Lancaster, leaving Elizabeth with two sons: for 
their sake she sought an interview with Kin-" Edward IV. to ask him to show 
them favor. Smitten by her charms, Edward made her his queen, but he was 
soon driven into exile in France, and afterwards died, while her father and 
brother perished in a popular tumult. Her daughter married King Henry 
VII., a jealous son in-law, who routined Elizabeth in the monastery of Ber- 




ROINS OF GRACE Dill" AB 



LEICESTER ABBEY AND CASTLE. 



I 1 I 



mondsey, where she died. Bradgate passed into the hands of her elder son 
by Sir John Grey of Groby, and his grandson was the father of the second 
queen to which it gave birth, whose name is better known than that of Eliz- 
abeth Widvile — the unfortunate " ten-days' queen," Lad) - Jane Grey. She lived 
the greater part of her short life at Bradgate, in the house whose ruins still 
stand to preserve her memory. We are told by the quaint historian Fuller 
that "she had the innocency of childhood, the beauty of youth, the solidity of 
middle, the gravity of old age, and all at eighteen — the birth of a princess, 
the learning of a clerk, the life of a saint, and the death of a malefactor for 
her parents' offences." These parents worried her into accepting the crown — 
they played for high stakes and lost — and her father and father-in-law, her hus- 
band and herself, all perished on the scaffold. We are told that this unfortu- 
nate lady still haunts Bradgate House, and on the last night of the dying year 
a phantom carriage, drawn by lour gray horses, glides around the ruins with 
her headless body. The old oaks have a gnarled and stunted appearance, tra- 
dition ascribing it to the woodsmen having lopped off all the leading shoots 
when their mistress perished. The remains of the house at present are princi- 
pally the broken shells of two towers, with portions of the enclosing walls, partly 
covered with ivy. 

LEICESTER ABBEY AND CASTLE. 
The city of Leicester, which is now chiefly noted for the manufacture of 
hosier)', was founded 
l>v the Britons, and 
was subsequently the 
Roman city oi Rata-. 
Many Roman remains 
still exist here, notably 
the ancient Jewry wall, 
which is seventy-five 
feet long and five feet 
high, and which formed 
part of the town-wall. 
Many old houses are 
found in Leicester, and 
just north of the city 
are the ruins of Lei- 
cester Abbey. This 
noted religious house 
was founded in the 




LEICESTER ABHEY. 



I I 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



twelfth century, and stood on a meadow watered by the river Soar. It was 
richly endowed, and was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, but its chief fame comes 
from its bein° the last residence of Cardinal Wolsey. This great man, once the 
primate of England, has had his downfall pathetically described by Shakespeare. 
'The king summoned him to London to stand trial lor treason, and on his way 
\\'olse\ became so ill that he was obliged to rest at Leicester, where he was 
met at the abbey-gate by the abbot and entire convent. Aware of his approach- 
inn- dissolution, the fallen cardinal said, " Father abbot, 1 have come hither to 
lay my hones among you." The next day he died, and to the surrounding 
monks, as the last sacrament was administered, he said, "It 1 had served God 
as diligently as 1 have done the king, He would not have given me over in my 
o-ray hairs." The remain-, were interred by torchlight before daybreak on St. 
Andrew's Lay. 1530, and to show the vanity of all things earthly tradition says 
that alter the destruction o( the abbey the stone coffin in which they were 
buried was used as a horse-trough lor a neighboring inn. Nothing remains 

ol the abbey as Wolsey saw it excepting 
the gate in the east wall through which 
he entered, The present ruins are frag- 
ments ol a house built afterwards. The 
foundations that can still be traced show- 
that it was a grand old building. The 
gardens and park now raise vegetables 
for the Leicester market. 

Leicester Castle still exists only in a 
portion of the great hall, but it has been 
enlarged anil modernized, and is now 
used for tin- county offices. The castle 
was built after the Norman Conquest to 
keep the townspeople in check. It was 
afterwards a stronghold o( Simon de 
Montfort, Earl o( Leicester, and it then 
became part ot the Duchy oi Lancaster. 
The Lukes of Lancaster restored it. and 
lived there frequently in great pomp, and 
they also built the adjoining Hospital ot the Newarke and a singular earth- 
work alongside, called the Mount. Several parliaments were held lure, but 
after the time oi Edward IV. the castle fell into decay. There are now few- 
remains of the original castle, excepting part of the great hall and the Mount 
or earthwork <<\ the keep, which is about thirty feet high and one hundred feet 




GATEWAY, NEWGAT1 STREET, ill* ESTER. 



THE EDGEHILl BATTLEFIELD. 



1 '3 



in diameter upon its flat, circular top. Not far from Leicester was fought the 
last great battle ot the "Wars of the Roses," Bosworth Field, upon Redmoor 
Plain, about two miles from the village now known as Market Bosworth, It 
was a moor at the time ot the battle in 1485, overgrown with thistles and 
scutch-grass. Shakespeare has been the most popular historian ol (his battle, 
and the well where Richard slaked his thirst is still pointed out, with other 
localities of the scenes of the famous contest that decided the kingship ot 
England, Richard III. giving place to Richmond, who became Henry VII. 



THE EDGEHILL BATTLEFIELD. 

While we are considering this locality two other famous battlefields not far 
away, that together were decisive of the fate of England, must not be over- 
looked. These were Edgehill ami 
Naseby, the opening and closing 
contests of the Civil War thai. 
overthrew Charles 1., the scene 




1 DGl 1111. I . 

ot one being visible from the other, though 
the intervening contest spread almost all over 
the island. The high ground that borders 
Warwickshire and Northamptonshire has 
%'-2* ' /'"rV-'V various roads crossing it, ami the opposing 

forces meeting on these highlands made them 
the scenes of the battles — practical repetitions oi many hot contests there in 
earlier years. The command of the Parliamentary ami)' had been given to 
the Earl of Essex, ami he and all his officers were proclaimed traitors by the 



114 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



king. Charles I. assembled an army at Nottingham in 1642 to chastise them, 
and it was considered an evil omen that when the royal standard was set up 
on the evening of the day of assemblage, a gale arose and it was blown down. 
Charles moved west from Nottingham to Shrewsbury to meet reinforcements 
from Wales, ami then his army numbered eighteen thousand men. Essex was 
at Northampton, and moved southward to Worcester. Charles desired to 
march to London to break up the Parliament, but to do this must either defeat 
or outflank Essex. 1 le chose the latter plan, moved to Kenilworth, but could 
not enter Coventry, because Lord Brooke, who was afterwards killed at Lich- 
field, held it for the Parliament. Essex left Worcester, and pressed the king 
by forced marches, hut Charles turned his flank and started tor London with 
Essex in pursuit. In October he reached Edgecot, near the field at Edgehill, 
and there in the open country he was astonished to tmd a gentleman amusing 
himself with a pack of hounds. lie asked who it was who could hunt so 
merrily while his sovereign was about to fight for his crown. Mr. Richard 
Shuckburgh was accordingly introduced, and the king persuaded him to take 
home his hounds and raise his tenantry. The next day he joined Charles with 
a troop of horse, and was knighted on the field oi Edgehill. 

Charles slept in the old house at Edgecot: the house has been superseded by 
a newer one, in which is preserved the bed in which the king rested on the night 
of ( )ctober 22, 1642. At three o'clock next morning, Sunday, he was aroused by 
a messenger from Prince Rupert, whose cavalry guarded the rear, saying that 
Essex was at hand, and the king could fight al oncv it he wished. He immediately 
ordered the march to Edgehill, a magnificent situation for an army to occupy, ior 
here the broken country ol the Border sinks suddenly down upon the level plain 
of Central England. Essex's camp-tires on that plain the previous night had 
betrayed his army to Prince Rupert, while Rupert's horsemen, appearing upon 
the brow of the hill, told Essex next morning that the king was at hand. Edge- 
hill is a long ridge extending almost north and south, with another ridge jut- 
ting out at right angles into the plain in front: thus the Parliamentary troops 
were on low ground, bounded in front and on their left by steep hills. On the 
southern side of Edgehill there had been cut out of the red iron stained rock 
o\ a projecting cliff a huge red horse, as a memorial ot the great Earl ot War- 
wick, who before a previous battle had killed his horse and vowed to share the 
perils of the meanest o\ his soldiers. Both sides determined to give battle; 
the Puritan ministers passed along the ranks exhorting the men to do their 
duty, and they afterwards referred, to the figure as the " Red Horse of the 
wrath of the Lord which did ride about furiously to the ruin ot the enemy." 
Charles disposed his army along the brow of the hill, and could overlook his 



THE EDGEHILL BATTLEFIELD. 



1 '5 



Iocs, stretched out on the plain, as if on a ma]), with the village of Kineton 
behind them. Essex had twelve thousand men on a little piece of rising 
ground known afterwards as the "Two Battle Farms," Battledon and Thistle- 
don. The king was superior both in numbers and position, with Prince Rupert 
and his cavalry on the right wing; Sir Edmund Verney bore the kind's stand- 
ard in the centre, where his tent was pitched, and Lord Lindsey commanded; 
under him was General Sir Jacob Astley, whose prayer before the battle is 
famous : " C) Lord, thou 
knowest how bus)- 1 must 
be this day ; if I forget thee, 
do not thou forget me. — 
March on, boys !" The 
king rode along in front 
ot his troops in the stately 
figure that is familiar in 
Vandyke's paintings — full 
armor, with the ribbon of 




W£& 



MILL AT EDGEHILL. 

the Garter across his breastplate and its star on his black velvet mantle — and 
made a brief speech of exhortation. The young princes Charles and James, 
his sons, both of them afterwards kings of England^ were present at Edge- 
hill, while the philosopher Hervey, who discovered the circulation of the blood, 
was also in attendance, and we are told was found in the heat of the battle 
sitting snugly under a hedge reading a copy of Virgil. 

The battle did not begin till aiternoon, and the mistake the king made was 
in not waiting for the attack in his strong position on the brow of the hill; but 
his men were impatient and in high spirits, and he permitted them to push for- 
ward, meeting the attack halfway. Rupert's cavalry upon encountering the 
Parliamentary left wing were aided by the desertion of part of the latter's 
forces, which threw them into confusion ; the wing broke ami lied before the 
troopers, who drove them with great slaughter into the village of Kineton, and 
then lell to plundering Essex's baggage-train. This caused a delay which en- 
abled the Parliamentary reserves to come up, and they drove Rupert back in 
confusion ; and when he reached the royal lines he found them in disorder, with 
Sir Edmund Verney killed and the royal standard captured, Lord Lindsey 
wounded and captured, and the king in personal danger; but darkness came, 
and enabled the king to hold his ground, and each side claimed a victory. The 
royal standard was brought back by a courageous Cavalier, who put on a Par- 
liamentary orange-colored srarf, rode into the enemy's lines, and persuaded the 
man who had it to let him carry it. For this bold act he was knighted by the 



Il6 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



king on the spot and given a gold medal. There were about fourteen hundred 
killed in the battle, and buiied between the two farm-houses of Battledon and 
Thistledon, at a place now called the Graveyards. Lord Lindsey died on his 
way to Warwick with his captors. Cromwell was not personally engaged at 
Edgehill, although there as a captain ol cavalry. Carlyle says that alter watch- 
ing the fight he told Hampden they never would get on with a "set of poor 
tapsters and town-apprentice people fighting against men of honor; to cope 
with men of honor they must have men ot religion." Hampden answered, "It 
was a good notion if it could be executed;" and Cromwell "set about exe- 
cuting a bit ot it, his share: of it, by and by." 

T II E BATTLE OF NASEBY. 

The last great contest of the Civil War, at which the fate of King Charles 
was really decided, was fought nearly three years afterwards, June 14, 1645, 
and but a few miles north-east of Edgehill, at Naseby, standing on a high 
plateau elevated nearly seven hundred feet. The Parliamentary forces had 
during the interval become by far the stronger, and were engaged in besieging 
Chester. The king and Prince Rupert in May left Oxford with their forces, 
and marched northward, hoping to raise this siege. The king had gone as far 
north as Leicester, when, hearing that Lord Fairfax had come from the borders 
of Wales and besieged Oxford, he turned about to relieve it. His army was 
about ten thousand strong, and, having reached Daventry in June, halted, 
while Fairfax, leaving Oxford, marched northward to meet the king, being five 
miles east of him on fune 12. Being weaker than Fairfax, the king determined 
on retreat, and the movement was started towards Market Harborough, just 
north of Naseby. The king, a local tradition says, while sleeping at Daventry 
was warned, by the apparition of Lord Strafford in a dream, not to measure 
his strength with the Parliamentary army. A second night the apparition came, 
assuring him that "it he kept his resolution of fighting he was undone;" and it 
is added that the king was often afterwards heard to say he wished he had 
taken the warning and not fought at Naseby. Fairfax, however, was resolved 
to force a battle, and pursued the king's retreating army. On June 13th he 
sent Harrison and Ireton with cavalry to attack its rear. That night the 
king's van and main body were at Market Harborough, and his rear-guard 
of horse at Naseby, three miles southward. Ireton about midnight surprised 
and captured most of the rear-guard, but a few, escaping, reached the king, 
and roused him at two in the morning. Fairfax was coming up, and reached 
Naseby at five in the morning. The king held a council of war in the 
" King's I lead Inn " at Market Harborough, and determined to face about and 



THE BATTLE OF NASEBY. 



117 



give battle. The forces met on Broad Moor, just north of Naseby village. 
Prince Rupert had command of the royal troops, and Sir Jacob Astley was 
in command of the infantry. The king rode along the lines, inspiriting the 

men with a speech, to which they gave a response of 




ringfiner cheers. 

o o 



Cromwell commanded the rieht wingf 



of Fairfax's line, while Ireton led the left, which was 
opposed by Rupert's cavalry. The advance was made 
by Fairfax, and the sequel proved that the Parliamentary 
forces had improved their tactics. Rupert's troopers, as 
usual, broke down the wing opposing them, and then 
went to plundering the baggage-wagons in the rear. 
But fortune inclined the other way elsewhere. Crom- 
well on the right routed the royal left wing, and after 
an hour's hot struggle the royal centre was completely 

broken up. Fairfax cap- 
tured the royal standard, 
and the king with his re- 
serve of horse made a 
gallant attempt to re- 
cover the day. But it 
was of no use. Fairfax 
formed a second line of 
battle, and the king's 
wiser friends, seizing his 



horse's bridle, turned him 
about, telling him his 
charere would lead to cer- 
tain destruction. Then 
a panic came, and the 
whole body of Royalists 
iled, with Fairfax's cavalry in pursuit. Cromwell and his "Ironsides" chased 
the fugitives almost to Leicester, and many were slaughtered. The king never 
halted till he got to Ashby de la Zouche, twenty-eight miles from the battle- 
field, and he then went on to Lichfield. There were one thousand Royalists 
killed and four thousand five hundred captured, with almost all the baggage, 
among it being the king's correspondence, which by disclosing his plans did 
almost equal harm with the defeat. The prisoners were sent to London. A 
monument has since been erected on the battlefield, with an inscription describ- 
ing the contest as "a useful lesson to British kingfs never to exceed the bounds 



CHURCH AND MARKET-HALL, MARKET HARBOROUGH. 



i iS 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



of their just prerogative ; and to British subjects, never to swerve from the 
allegiance due to their legitimate monarch." This is certainly an oracular 
utterance, and of its injunctions the reader can take his choice. 



THE LAND OF SHAKESPEARE. 

Close to the village of Naseby rises the Avon, souk; ot its springs being 

actually within the village, where their waters are caught in little ponds for 

watering cattle. The slender stream of Shakespeare's river flows downward 

from the plateau through green meadows, and thence to the classic ground 

of Stratford and of Warwick. It was at Stratford-on-Avon that Shakespeare 

was born and died ; 

" Here his first infant lays sweet Shakespeare sung, 
Here the last ao ents faltered on his tongue." 

The old house where he was born is on the main street of the town, and has 

been taken posses- 
sion ot by a Trust 
which has restored it 
to its original condi- 
tion. Its walls are 
covered with the 
initials of visitors ; 
there is nothing to 
be seen in the house 
that has any proved 
connection with 
Shakespeare except- 
ing his portrait, paint- 
ed when he was about 
forty-five years old. 
T he sign o t t h e 
butcher who had the 
building before the 
Trust bought it is 
also exhibited, and 
states that " The immortal Shakespeare was born in this house." His birth 
took place in this ancient but carefully preserved building on April 23, 1564, 
and exactly fifty-two years later, on April 23, 1616, he died in another house 
near by, known as the "New Place," on Chapel Street. Excepting the garden 
and a portion of the ancient foundations nothing now remains of the house 




SHAKESPEARE 



THE LAND OF SHAKESPEARE. 



1I 9 



where Shakespeare died ; a green arbor in the yard, with the initials oi his 
name set in the front fence, being all that marks the spot. Adjoining the 
remnants of this " New Place " is the "Nash House," where the curator repre- 
senting the Shakespeare Trust has his home. This building is also indirectly 
connected with Shakespeare, having belonged to and been occupied by Thomas 
Nash, who married Elizabeth Hall, the poet's granddaughter, who subsequently 
became Lady Barnard. The church of the Holy Trinity at Stratford contains 
Shakespeare's grave; five flat stones lying in a row across the narrow chancel 
cover his family, the grave of Anne Hathaway, his wife, being next to that of 
the poet; his monument is on the wall, and near it is the American memorial 
window, representing the Seven Ages of Man. In the chancel upon the west- 
ern side, within a 
Grecian niche, is the 
well known half- 
figure monument of 
Shakespeare that 
has been so widely 
copied, represent- 
ing him in the act 
of composition. 
The most imposing 
building in Strat- 
ford is the " Shake- 
speare Memorial," 
a large and highly 
ornamental struc- ANNF - hathaway's cottage. 

ture, thoroughly emblematic, and containing a theatre. Stratford is lull of relics 
of Shakespeare and statues and portraits in his memory. There is a life-size 
statue of the poet outside the Town-Hall which was presented to the city by 
Garrick in the last century, while within the building is his full-length portrait, 
also a present from Garrick, together with Gainsborough's portrait of Garrick 
himself. At the modest hamlet of Shottery, about a mile out of town, is the 
little cottage where Anne Hathaway lived, and where the poet is said to have 
"won her to his love;" a curious bedstead and other relics arc shown at the 
cottage. Charlecote House, the scene of Shakespeare's youthful deer-stealing 
adventure that compelled him to go to London, is about four miles east of 
Stratford, near the Avon : it is an ancient mansion of the Elizabethan period. 
In the neighborhood are also a mineral spring known as the Royal Victoria 
Spa and some ancient British intrenchments called the Dingles. 




I 20 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



W A R W [ C K . 

The renowned castle of Warwick is upon the Avon, a short distance above 
Stratford. Warwick was founded by the Britons at a very early period, and is 
believed to be as old in some parts as the Christian era; it was afterwards held 
as a Christian stronghold against the Danes. Lady Ethelfleda, daughter of 
King Alfred, built the donjon-keep upon an artificial mound of earth that can 
still be traced in the castle grounds. The most ancient part of the present 

castle was erected in 
the reign of Edward 
the Confessor, and in 
William the Con- 
queror's time it re- 
ceived considerable 
additions, and he cre- 
ated the first Earl of 
Warwick. It was a 
great stronghold in 
the subsequent wars, 
a tul an heiress 
brought the castle to 
Richard Neville, who 
assumed the title in 
right of his wife, and 
was the famous War- 
wick, " the King- 
maker." After many 
changes it came to 
the Grevilles, who are 
now the Earls of 
Warwick. This castle is one of the best specimens of the feudal stronghold 
remaining in England, and occupies a lovely position on the river-bank, being 
built on a rock about forty feet high ; its modern apartments contain a rich 
museum filled with almost priceless relics of the olden time. Here are also 
valuable paintings and other works of art, among them Yandyck's portrait of 
Charles I. and many masterpieces of Rembrandt, Paul Veronese, Leonardo 
da Vinci, Rubens, Holbein, and Salvator Rosa. In December, 1871, the great, 
hall ami suite of private apartments at Warwick were burnt, but the valuable 
contents were almost all saved with little injury. The castle was restored by 




WARWICK CASTLE. 



WARWICK. 121 



a public subscription. It is built around a large oval-shaped court; the gate- 
house tower is flanked by embattled walls covered with ivy, and having at 
either extremity Caesar's Tower and Guy's Tower; the inner court is bounded 
by ramparts and turrets, and has on one side an artificial mound surmounted by 
an ancient tower. From the modernized rooms ot the castle, where the iamily 
live and the museum is located, and which extend in a suite for three hundred 
and fifty feet, all the windows look out upon beautiful views; many of these 
rooms are hung with tapestry. Caesar's Tower, believed to be the most ancient 
part of the castle and as old as the Norman Conquest, is one hundred and 
seventy-four feet high; Guy's Tower, which was built in 1394, has solid walls 
ten feet thick and is one hundred and twenty-eight feet high, disclosing fine 
views from the turrets. The grounds are extensive, and the magnificent marble 
" Warwick Vase," brought from the Emperor Adrian's villa at Tivoli in Italy, is 
kept in a special greenhouse, being one of the most completely perfect and 
beautiful specimens of ancient sculpture known. St. Mary's Church at War- 
wick is a fine building, which in the early part of the last century replaced the 
original collegiate church of St. Mary, an edifice that had unfortunately been 
burnt. Thomas Beauchamp, one of the earlier Earls of Warwick, was the 
founder of this church, and his monument with recumbent effigy is in the 
middle of the choir. The Beauchamp Chapel, over four hundred years old, is 
a beautiful relic of the original church still remaining, and stands on the south- 
ern side of the new building. The whole of this portion of Warwickshire is 
underlaid by medicinal waters, and the baths of Leamington are in the valley 
of the little river Learn, a short distance north-east of the castle, its Jephson 
Gardens, a lovely park, commemorating one of the most benevolent patrons. 
Warwick Castle, like all the others, has its romance, and this centres 
in the famous giant, Guy of Warwick, who lived nearly a thousand years 
ago, and was nine feet high. His staff and club and sword and armor are 
exhibited in a room adjoining Ca;sar's Tower; and here also is Guy's 
famous porridge-pot, a huge bronze caldron holding over a hundred gal- 
lons, which is used as a punch-bowl whenever there are rejoicings in the 
castle. There is nothing fabulous about the arms or the porridge-pot, but 
there is a good deal that is doubtful about the giant Guy himself and the 
huge dun cow that once upon a time he slew, one of whose ribs, measuring 
over six feet long, is shown at Guy's Cliff. This clift is where the redoubt- 
able Guy retired as a hermit after championing the. cause of England in single 
combat against a giant champion of the Danes, and is about a mile from War- 
wick. It is a picturesque spot, and a chantry has been founded there, while 
for many years a rude statue of the giant Guy stood on the cliff, where the 



I - 2 



ENGLAND, PI( TURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




LEICESTER S m ,s l'l f \1 



chisel had cut it out of the 

solid rock. The town of War- 
wick is lull of old gabled houses 
and of curious relics ol the time 
of the "King-maker" and oi 
the famous Earl of Leicester, 
who in Elizabeth's time founded 
there the Leicester Hospital, 
where especial preference is 
given to pensioners who have 
been wounded in the wars. It 
is a fine old house, with its 
chapel, which has been re- 
stored nearly in the old form, 
slretching over the pathway, 
and a flight of steps leading 
up to the promenade around 
it. The hospital buildings are 
constructed around an open 
quadrangle, and upon the quaint 
black and white building are 

l * 



\\ VRWII K. 

some fine antique carvings. 1 he old " Malt- 
Shovel Inn" is a rather decayed structure 
in Warwick, with its ancient porch protrud- 
ing over the street, while some ol the build- 
ings, deranged in the lower stories by the 
acute angles at which the streets cross, have 
oblique gables above stairs that enabled 
the builders to construct the upper rooms 
square. 1 his is a style of construction 
peculiar to Warwick, and adds to the 
oddity ol this somnolent old town, that 
seems to have been practicallj asleep for 
centuries. oblique gables in Warwick. 

K E N 1 1 W O R III. 
About five miles from Warwick are the ruins of Kenilworth Castle, the 
magnificent home of the Earl of Leicester, which Scott has immortalized. 
Geoffrey de Clinton in the reigp of Henry I. built a strong castle and 




KENILWORTH. 



12 



founded a monastery here. It was afterwards the castle; of Simon de Mont- 
fort, and his son was besieged in it for several months, ultimately surrendering, 
when the king bestowed it on his youngest son, Edward, Earl of Lancaster 
and Leicester. Edward II., when taken prisoner in Wales, was brought to 
Kenilworth, and signed his abdication in the castle, being afterwards murdered 
in Berkeley Castle. Then it came to John of Gaunt, and in the Wars of the 
Roses was alternately held by the partisans of each side. Finally, Queen 
Elizabeth bestowed it upon her ambitious favorite, Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 
who made splendid additions to the buildings. It was here that Leicester gave 
the magnificent entertainment to Queen Elizabeth which was a series of 




KF.Ml.wniaii CASTL] 



pageants lasting seventeen days, and cost $5000 a day — a very large sum for 
those times. The queen was attended by thirty-one barons and a host of 
retainers, and four hundred servants, who wen- all lodged in die fortress. The 
attendants were clothed in velvet, and the party drank sixteen hogsheads of 
wine and forty hogsheads of beer every day, while to (cn\ them ten oxen were 
killed every morning. There was a succession of plays and amusements pro- 
vided, including the Coventry play of " Hock Tuesday" and the "Country 
Bridal," with bull- and bear baiting, of which the queen was very fond. Scott 
has given a gorgeous description of these fetes and of the great castle, and 
upon these and the tragic fate of Amy Robsart has founded his romance of 
Kenilworth. The display and hospitality oi the Earl oi Leicester wen- intended 



[24 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



to pave the way to marriage, but the wily queen was not to be thus entrapped. 
The castle is now part of the Earl of Clarendon's estate, and he has taken 
great pains to preserve the famous ruins. The great hall, ninety feet long, 
still retains several of its Gothic windows, and some of the towers rise seventy 
feet high. These ivy-mantled ruins stand upon an elevated rocky site com- 
manding a line prospect, and their chief present use is as a picnic-ground for 
tourists. Not far away are the ruins of die prior)-, which was founded at the 
same time as the castle. A dismantled gate house with some rather extensive 
foundations are all that remain. In a little church near by the matins and the 
curfew are still tolled, one of the hells used having belonged to the priory. 
Few English ruins have more romance t attached to them than those oi 
Kenilworth, for the graphic pen oi the 
terwoven them into one ot his lust 
idea o\ the splendors as well as the 
era that will exist as long .is the 



lust story-teller of Britain has in- 
romances, and has thus given an 
dark deeds oi the Elizabethan 



anguage endures. 




i 






ST. M \K I IN S I 111 Kl II. r.lKMINi.ll \\l. 



r. I KM I NO II AM. 



Thus far we have mainly written of the rural and historical attractions ol 
Warwickshire, hut its great city must not he passed hy without notice. The 
•• Homestead of the Sons of Beorrrt " the Saxon, while rising from small begin- 



BIRMINGHAM. 



I 2- 



rrings, has had a prodigiously rapid growth since the coal, iron, and railways 
have so greatly swollen the wealth and population of manufacturing England. 
It was at the time of the Conquest the manor of Bermingeham, or, as the Mid- 
land English prefer to pronounce it, "Brummagem." It was held for many 
years by a family of the same name, and had an uneventful history till the 
townsfolk ranged themselves on the side of Parliament in the Civil War, in 
revenge lor which Prince Rupert captured and pillaged Birmingham : it was 
then a market-town, built mostly along one street, and noted for its smiths and 
cutlers, who were kept busy in forging pikes and swords lor the king's oppo- 
nents. The; great growth of the city has keen in the present century, when the 
population has trebled, and now approaches four hundred thousand. The main 
features of its history relate to trade and manufactures, otherwise its annals are 
comparatively commonplace. There is little remaining of the old town, almost 
all the structures being modern. St. Martin's Church, replacing the original 
parish church, or " Mother Church," as it is called, is a fine modern structure, 
and contains some interesting monuments of the Bermingeham family. Then- 
are several other attractive churches, including the Unitarian church of the 
Messiah, which is supported on massive arches, for it is built over a canal on 
which are several locks : this has given cause for a favorite Birmingham wit- 
ticism : 

"St. Peter's world wide diocese 

Rests on the power ol the key,; 

Our church, ;i tulle heterodox, 

We'll rest on a ■ power of locks.' " 

Birmingham has 
many fine public and 
private bu il dings 
and some attractive 
streets, though much 
of the town is made 
up of narrow lanes 
and dingy houses, 
with huge factories 
in every direction. 
There are several 
small parks, the gifts 
of opulent residents, 
notably Aston I talk 
This was formerly 

J ASTON HALL. 




126 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




(. M.I EKV (II 



III I'RESEN'CE 



ASTON II A I I 



the residence of the- Holte family, and the line old mansion which still stands 
in the grounds was built by Sir Thomas Holte in the reign of James 1. 
Charles I. is said to have slept here for two nights before the battle of Edge- 
hill, for which offence the 
house was cannonaded by 
the Puritans and its owners 
fined. The grounds, cover- 
ing about forty-two acres, 
are now a park, and a pic- 
turesque little church has 
been built near the man- 
sion. Some of the factories 
of this metropolis of hard- 
ware are tine structures, 
but when their product is 
spoken ot, " Brummagem " is 
sometimes quoted as synon- 
ymous for show\- sham. Here they art- said to make gods for the heathen and 
antiquities ot the Pharaoh age for Egypt, with all sorts of relics for all kinds 
ot battlefields. But Birmingham nevertheless has a reputation for more solid 
wares. Its people are the true descendants of Tubal Cain, for one of its his- 
torians attractively says that the Arab eats with a Birmingham spoon ; the 
Egyptian takes his bowl of sherbet from a Birmingham tray; the American 
Indian shoors a Birmingham riile ; the Hindoo dines on Birmingham plate and 
sees by the light of a Birmingham lamp; the South American horsemen wear 
Birmingham spurs and gaudily deck their jackets with Birmingham buttons; 
the West Indian cuts down the sugar-cane with Birmingham hatchets and 
presses the juice into Birmingham vats and coolers; the Cerman lights his 
pipe on a Birmingham tinder-box ; the emigrant cooks his dinner in a Bir- 
mingham saucepan over a Birmingham stove; ami so on ad infinitum. A cen- 
tury ago this famous town was known as the "toy-shop of Europe." Its glass- 
workers stand at the head of their profession, and here are made the oreat 
lighthouse lenses and the finest stained glass to be found in English windows. 
The Messrs. Elkington, whose reputation is worldwide, here invented the pro- 
cess ot electro-plating. It is a great place for jewelry and the champion 
emporium for buttons. It is also the great English workshop for swords, 
guns, and other small-arms, and here are turned out by the million Gillott's 
steel pens. Over all these industries presides the magnificent Town Hall, a 
Grecian temple standing upon an arcade basement, and built of hard limestone 



FOTHERINGHAY. 



12' 



brought from the island of Anglesea. The interior is chiefly a vast assembly- 
room, where concerts are given and political meetings held, the latter usually 
being the more exciting, for we are told that when party feeling runs high 
some of the Birmingham lolk "are a little too fond of preferring force to areru- 

o loo 

ment." But, although famed for its Radical politics and the introduction of the 
"caucus" into England, Birmingham will always be chiefly known by its manu- 
factures, and these will recall its illustrious inventors, Boulton and Watt. Their 
factory was at Soho, just north of the town. Here Watt brought the steam- 




THF- TOWN-HALL, BIRMINGHAM. 



engine to perfection, here gas was first used, plating was perfected, and myriads 
of inventions were developed. "The labors of Boulton and Watt at Soho," 
says the historian Langford, " changed the commercial aspects of the world." 
Their history is, however, but an epitome of the wonderful story of this ^reat 
city of the glass and metal-workers, whose products supply the entire globe. 



FOTHERINGHAY. 
In our journey through Midland England we have paused at many of the 
prison-houses of Mary Queen of Scots. In Northamptonshire, near Elton, 
are the remains of the foundations of the castle of Fotheringhay, out in a field, 
with the mound of the keep rising in front of them ; this was the unfortunate 
queen's last prison. It was a noted castle, dating from the twelfth century, and 
had been a principal residence of the Plantagenets. Here Mary was tried and 



[28 ENGLAND. PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



beheaded, February 8, 1587. She is said to have borne up under her greal 
afflictions with marvellous courage. Conducted to the scaffold alter taking 
leave of all. she made a short address, declaring that she had never sought 
the life of her cousin Elizabeth — that she was queen born, not subject to the 
laws, and forgiving all. Her attendants in tears then assisted her to remove her 
clothing, but she firmly said, "Instead ol weeping, rejoice; 1 am very happy to 
leave this world and in so good a cause." Then she knelt, and alter praying 
stretched out her neck to the executioner, imagining that he would strike off 
her head while in an upright posture and with the sword, as in France; they 
told her oi her mistake, and without ceasing to pray she laid her head on the 
block. There was a universal feeling of compassion, even the headsman him- 
self being so moved that he did his work with unsteady hand, the axe falling 
on the hack of her head and wounding her; hut she did not move nor utter a 
complaint, and, repeating the hlow, he struck ofl her head, which he held up, 
saying, " God save Queen Eli abeth!" Her lips moved for some time after 
death, and few recognized her features, the) were so much changed, 



HOLM BY HOUSE. 

Also in Northamptonshire is Holmby House, where King Charles I. was cap- 
tured by the arms previous to his trial. It was built by Sir Christopher Hatton 
in Queen Elizabeth's time, but only the gates and some outbuildings remain. 
Alter the battle o\ Naseby the king surrendered himself to the Scots, and th< \. 
through an arrangement with the English Parliament, conducted him to Holmby 
1 louse, where he maintained something of sovereign state, though under the 
surveillance of the Parliamentary commissioners. lie devoted his time to 
receiving visitors, the bowling-green, and the chess-table. 1 his continued for 
some months, when a struggle began between the armv and the Parliament to 
decide whose captive he was. The army subsequently, by a plot, got posses 
sion o\ Holmby, an, I, practically making prisoners ot the garrison and the com 
missioners o\ Parliament, they abducted the king and took him to a house near 
Huntingdon. Fairfax sent two regiments oi troops thither to escort him back 
to Holmby, but he had been treated with great courtesj .xnA declined to go 
hack. Thus by his own practical consent the king was taken possession of 
In Cromwell, Fairfax, and [reton, who were in command, although they denied 
it. ami put the whole blame on one Cornet foyce who was in command ot the 
detachment of troops that took possession o( Holmby. The king was ulti- 
mately taken to London, tried, and executed in Whitehall. At Ashby St. Leger, 
near Daventry, in Northamptonshire, is the gate-house of the ancient manor o! 
the Catesbys, of whom Robert Cfctesby was the contriver oi the Gunpowder 



BEDFORD CASTLE. I 29 



Plot. The thirteen conspirators who framed the plot met in a room over the 
gateway which the villagers call the "Plot-room," and here Guy Fawkes was 
equipped lor his task, which so alarmed the kingdom that to this day the cel- 
lars oi the Parliament Houses are searched before the session begins tor fear 
a new plot may have been hatched, while the anniversary is kept as a solemn 
holiday in London. The lantern used by Guy Fawkes is still preserved in the 
Oxford Museum having been given to the University in 1641. 

BEDFORD CASTLE. 

One of the most ancient of the strongholds of Midland England was the 
Bedicanford of the Saxons, where contests took place between them and the 
Britons as early as the sixth century. It stood in a fertile valley on the Ouse, 
and is also mentioned in the subsequent contests with the Danes, having been 
destroyed by them in the eleventh century. Finally, William Rufus built a 
castle there, ami its name gradually changed to Bedford. It was lor years 
subject to every storm of civil war — was taken and retaken, the most famous 
siege lasting sixty days, when.Henry III. personally conducted the operations, 
being attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the chief peers of the 
realm: this was in 1224, ami the most ingenious engines of war were used to 
batter down the castle-walls, which till then had been regarded as impregnable. 
The stronghold was ultimately captured, chiefly through the agency of a lofty 
wooden castle higher than the walls, which gave an opportunity of seeing all 
that passed within. The governor of the castle, twenty-four knights, and 
eighty soldiers, making most of the garrison, were hanged. King Henry then 
dismantled it and filled up the ditches, so as to "uproot this nursery of sedi- 
tion." The ruins lasted some time afterward, but now only the site is known, 
located alongside the river Ouse, which runs through the city of Bedford. This 
town is of great interest, though, as Camden wrote two centuries ago, it is more 
eminent tor its " pleasant situation and antiquity than lor anything of beauty 
and stateliness." Its neighborhood has been a noted mine for antiquities, dis- 
closing remains of ancient races of men and of almost pre-historic animals of 
the Bronze and Iron Ages. The town lies rather low on the river, with a hand- 
some bridge connecting the two parts, and pretty gardens fringing each shore. 
'I his bridge is a modern structure, having succeeded the "old bridge," which 
stood there several centuries with a gate-house at either end, in the larger of 
which was the old jail, that had for its most distinguished occupant that sturdy 
townsman of Bedford, |ohn Bunyan. The castle-mound, which is all that is 
left, and on which once; stood the keep, is on the river shore just below the 
bridge, and is now used for a bowling green in the garden of the chief hotel. 
17 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



The memorials of the author of the Pilgrims Progress, first a prisoner and 
then a minister of the gospel in Bedford, are probably the most prized remains 
of ancient days that Bedford has, though they are now becoming scarce. 




ELSTOW, r.l I'l 



JOHN BUNYAN. 
Elstow, a village about one mile south of Bedford, was Bunyan's birthplace. 
The house is still pointed out, though a new front has been put into it, and it is 

a very small building, suitable to the tinker's 
humble estate. The village-green where 
he played is near by, alongside the church- 
yard wall ; the church, which has been little 
changed, stands on the farther side of the 
yard, with a massive tower at the north- 
western angle, looking more like a fortress 
than a religious edifice. The bells are still 
there which Bunyan used to ring, and they 
also point out " Bunyan's Pew " inside, 
though the regularity of his attendance 
is not vouched for, as he says "absenting 
himself from church" was one of his of- 
fences during the greater part of his life. 
He married early and in poor circumstances, the young couple "not having so 
much household stuff as a dish or spoon betwixt them both," though he con- 
sidered it among his mercies that he was led "to light upon a wife of godly 
parentage'' He says that a marked change in his mental condition suddenly 
began while playing a 
game of " tipcat " on 
Sunday afternoon on 
the village-green, hav- 
Ing listened in the 
morning to a sermon 
upon Sabbath-break- 
ing. His conscience 
smote him ; he aban- 
doned the game, leav- 
ing his cat upon the 
ground, and then be- 
gan his great spiritual struggle. He joined the Baptists, and began preaching, 
for at length, alter many tribulations, he says, "the burden fell from off his 




ELSTOW CHURCH. 



WO BURN ABBEY. 



131 



back." He was persecuted, and committed to Bedford jail, where he remained 
(with short intervals of parole) for about twelve years. Here he wrote what 
Macaulay declares to be incomparably the finest allegory in the English lan- 
guage — the Pilgrims Progress. He was a volu- ^ •-,— - 
minous author, having written some sixty tracts 
and books. Finally pardoned in 1672, he be- 
came pastor of the Bedford meeting-house, and 
afterwards escaped molestation ; he preached in 
all parts of the kingdom, especially in London, 
where he died at the age of sixty, having caught 
cold in a heavy storm while going upon an er- 
rand of mercy in 16S8. His great work will 
live as long as the Anglo-Saxon race endures. 
"That wonderful book," writes Macaulay, "while 
it obtains admiration from the most fastidious 
critics, is loved by those who are too simple to 
admire it. . . . Every reader knows the strait north door, elstow church. 
and narrow path as well as he knows a road in which he has gone backward 
and forward a hundred times. This is the highest miracle of genius, that 
things which are not should be as though they were — that the imaginations of 
one mind should become the personal recollections of another ; and this mir- 
acle the tinker has wrought." 




WOBURN ABBEY. 
The county of Bedford gives the title to the dukedom held by the head of 
the great family of Russell, and Francis Charles Hastings Russell, the ninth 
Duke of Bedford, has his residence at the magnificent estate of Woburn Abbey. 
It is about forty miles from London, and on the Buckinghamshire border. Here 
the Cistercians founded an abbey in the twelfth century, which continued until 
the dissolution of the religious houses by Henry VIII., and the last abbot, 
Robert Hobs, was executed for denying the king's religious supremacy, the 
tree on which he was hanged being still carefully preserved in Woburn Park. 
The abbey and its domain were granted by the youthful king Edward VI. to 
John Russell, first Earl of Bedford, under circumstances which show how for- 
tune sometimes smiles upon mortals. Russell, who had been abroad and was 
an accomplished linguist, had in 1506 returned, and was living with his father 
in Dorsetshire at Berwick, near the sea-coast. Soon afterwards in a tempest 
three foreign vessels sought refuge in the neighboring port of Weymouth. On 
one of them was the Austrian archduke Philip, son-in-law of Ferdinand and 



/ VGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



Isabella, who was on his way to Spain. The governor took the archduke to 
his castle, and invited young Mr. Russell to act as interpreter. The archduke 
was so delighted with him that he subsequently invited Russell to accompany 
him on a visit to King Henry VII. at Windsor. The king was also impressed 
with Russell, and appointed him to ,\n office in the court, and three years alter- 
wards, Henry \ 111, becoming king, Russell was entrusted with many important 
duties, ami was raised to the peerage as Baron Russell. I le enjoyed the 
king's favor throughout his long reign, and was made one of the councillors 




WOB1 KN \r.Ki \ , u i .1 FRONT, 



ot his son. Edward VI., besides holding other high offices,and when the youth- 
ful prince ascended the throne he made Russell an earl and gave him the 
magnificent domain ot Woburn Abbey, lie also enjoyed the favor of Queen 
Mary, and escorted her husband Philip from Spain, this being his last public 
aet. Dying in 1555, he was buried in the little parish church o\ Chenies, near 
Woburn, where all the Russells rest from his time until now. lie thus founded 
one ot the greatest houses of England, which has furnished political leaders 
from that day to this, for the Pukes of Bedford and Devonshire are the heads 
of the Whig party, and Lord John Russell (afterwards an earl) was the uncle 
ot the present duke. 

Woburn \bbey remained until the last century much in its original condition, 
but in 1747 changes began which have since been continued, and have resulted 



WOBURN ABBEY. 



133 



in the construction of the ducal palace now adorning the spot. The 
mansion is a quadrangle enclosing a spacious court, the chid front being 
towards the west and extending two hundred and thirty feet. It is an Ionic 
building with a rustic basement, and within are spacious state-apartments and 
ample accommodations for the family. The rooms are filled with die best 
collection of portraits of great historical characters in (he kingdom, and 
most of them are by famous artists. They include all the Earls and Dukes 
of Bedford, with their wives and famous 
relatives, and also the l.eicesters, Essexes, 
and Sydneys of Queen Elizabeth's reign, 
with many others. The unfortunate Lord 
William Russell and his wife Rachel are 
here, and over his portrait is the walking- 
stick which supported him to the scaffold, 
while hanging on the wall is a copy of his 
last address, printed within an hour after 
his execution. Of another oi these old 
portraits Horace Walpole writes: "A pale 
Roman nose, a head of hair loaded with 
crowns and powdered with diamonds, a 
vast ruff and still vaster fardingale, and a 
bushel of pearls, are the features by which 
everybody knows at once the pictures oi 
Queen Elizabeth." There is a tine library, 
and passing out of it into the flower-garden is seen on the lawn the stump oi the 
yew tree; which Mr. Gladstone felled in October, [878, as a memorial of his visit, 
he being as proud of his ability as a forester as he is of his eminence as a states- 
man. From the houses a covered way leads to the statue-gallery, which con 
tains an admirable collection, and the green-house, one hundred and fifty 
feet long, tilled with valuable foreign plants, the family being great horti- 
culturists. Busts of the great Whig statesmen are in the gallery, and it 
also contains the celebrated Lanti vase, brought from Rome. The "Woburn 
Abbey Marbles" have long been a Mecca for sculpture-loving pilgrims from 
both sides of the ocean. There; are extensive stables, and to them are 
attached a fine tennis-court and riding-house, both constantly used by the 
younger Russells. Beyond is a Chinese dairy kept for show, and in a distant 
part of the grounds a curious puzzle garden and rustic grotto. Woburn Park 
is one of the largest private enclosures in England, covering thirty-five hun- 
dred acres, and enclosed by a brick wall twelve miles long and eight feet high. 




THE SCULPTURE-GALLERY, WOBURN ABBEY. 



•34 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



1 "i\A I'i't 



It is undulating in surface, containing several pretty lakes and a large herd of 
deer. Its " Evergreen Drive" is noted, for in the spring-time it attracts visitors 
from all quarters to see the magnificence of the rhododendrons, which cover 

two hundred acres. The state en- 
trance to the park is through a large 
stone archway with ornamental elates, 
called the "('.olden ( ".ales," on the road 
from London, and having two drives 
of about a mile each leading up to 
the abbey. The dukes are liberal pa- 
trons of agriculture, and their annual 
"sheep-shearing" used to he one of 
the jri-eat festivals of this part of Eng- 




,- 



*mf> .•••■~****v_w>,.v.'--. 

~^Z~ *. ... — 



ENTRANCE TO THE PUZZLE-GARDEN, WOBURN VBBE1 

land. They have also aided in the work of draining the hen country, which 
extends into Bedfordshire, and which has reclaimed a vast domain of the best 
farm-land, stretching northward lor liltv miles. 



STOWE. 

We are now approaching London, and, crossing over the bonier into Buck- 
inghamshire, com,- to another ducal palace. This is the line estate, near the 
town of Buckingham, of Stowe, also originally an abbey, which came into pos- 
session of the Temple family in the sixteenth century, and in 1749 merged 
into the estate o( the (.renvilles, the ancestors of the Luke of Buckingham, 
its" present owner. Stowe gets its chief lame from its pleasure-gardens, which 
Pope has commemorated. They appear at a distance like a vast grove, from 
whose luxuriant foliage emerge obelisks, columns, and towers. They are 
adorned with arches, pavilions, temples, a rotunda, hermitage, grotto, lake, 
and bridge. Hie temples are tilled with statuary. The mansion, which has 
been gready enlarged, has a frontage ol nine hundred and sixteen feet, and 
its windows look out over the richest possible landscape, profuse with every 
adornment. In the interior the rooms, opening one into another, form a superb 
suite. There is a Rembrandt Room, hung with pictures by that painter, and 
there were mam' curiosities from Italy ; old tapestry ami draperies ; rich ( )riental 
stuffs, the spoils of Tippoo Saib; furniture from the Doge's Palace in \ enice ; 
marble pavements from Rome : tine paintings and magnificent plate. For 
merly, Stowe contained the grandest collection in England, and in this superb 
palace, thus gorgeously furnished, Richard Grenville, the first Luke of Bucking- 
ham, entertained Louis XVIII. and Charles X. of France and their; suites during 
their residence in England. Ills hospitality was too much lor him, ami, bur- 



CRES/.Olf //OCSK. I35 



dencd with debt, he was compelled to shut up Stowe and go abroad. In 1845 
his successor received Queen Victoria at Stowe at enormous cost, and in 1S4S 
there was a financial crisis in the family. The sumptuous contents of the 
palace were sold to pay the debts, and realized $375,000. A splendid avenue 
of elms leads up from the town of Buckingham to Stowe, a distance of two 
miles. 

Not far away from Buckingham is Whaddon 1 [all, formerly a seat of the 
Dukes of Buckingham, but best known as the resilience of Browne Willis, an 
eccentric antiquary, whose person and dress were so singular that he was often 
mistaken for a beggar, and who is said "to have written the very worst hand 
of any man in England." He wore one pair of boots for forty years, having 
them patched when they were worn out, and keeping them till they had got 
all in wrinkles, so that he was known as "Old Wrinkle-boots." He was gnat 
for building churches and quarrelling with the clergy, and left behind him valu- 
able collections of coins and manuscripts, which he bequeathed to Oxford Uni- 
versity. Great Hampden, the home of the patriot, John Hampden, is also in 
Buckinghamshire. The original house rem. tins, much disfigured by stucco and 
whitewash, and standing in a secluded spot in the Chiltern Hills; it is still the 
property of his descendants in the seventh generation. 

CRESLOW HOUSE. 
The manor of Creslow in Buckinghamshire, owned by Lord Clifford of 
Chudleigh, is a pasture-farm of eight hundred and fifty acres, and is said to 
raise some of the finest cattle in England ; it was the home of the regicide 
Holland. The mansion is an ancient one, spacious and handsome, much of 
it, including the crypt and tower, coming down from the time of Edward III., 
with enlargements in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is a picturesque 
yet venerable building, with many gables and curious chimneys, and surmount- 
ed by a square tower and loopholed turret. But its chief interest attaches to 
the two ancient cellars known as the crypt and the dungeon: the crypt is 
about twelve feet square, excavated in the limestone rock, and having a Gothic 
vaulted ceiling, with a single small window; the dungeon is eighteen feet long 
halt as wide, and six feet high, without any windows, and with a roof formed 
of massive stones. This is the "haunted chamber of Creslow" — haunted by 
a lady, Rosamond Clifford, the "Fair Rosamond" of Woodstock, often heard, 
but seldom seen, by those who stay at night in the room, which she enters by 
a Gothic doorway leading from the crypt. Few have ever ventured to sleep 
there, but not long ago a guest was prevailed upon to do it, and next morning 
at breakfast he told his story: "Having entered the room, I locked and bolted 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



both doors, carefully examined the whole room, and satisfied myself that there 
was no living creature in it but myself, nor any entrances but those 1 had 

secured. I got into lied, and, with the conviction that 1 should sleep as usual 
till six in the morning, 1 was soon lost in a comfortable slumber. Suddenly 1 
was aroused, and on raising my head to listen 1 heard a sound certainly resem- 
bling tlv light, solt tread o! a lady's footstep, accompanied with the rustling as 
oi a silk gown. I sprang out of bed and lighted a candle; there was nothing 
to be seen a\\\\ nothing now to be heard; I carefully examined the whole room, 
looked under the bed, into the lireplace, up the chimney, and at both the doors, 
which were fastened as 1 had left them; I looked at my watch, and it was a lew 
minutes past twelve. As all was now perfectly quiet, I extinguished the candle 
and soon fell asleep. I was again aroused; the noise was now louder than 
before; it appeared like the violent rustling of a stilt" silk dress. 1 sprang 

out ol bed, darted to the spot where the noise was, ami tried to grasp the 
intruder in my arms; my arm; met together, but enclosed nothing. The noise 
passed to another pari o\ the room, atul 1 followed it, groping near the floor to 
prevent anything passing under my arms. It was in vain; I could feel noth 
ing ; the noise hail passed awa\ through the Gothic door, and all was still as 
death. I lighted a candle and examined the Gothic door, but it was shut and 
fastened just as I had left it ; I again examined the whole room, but could lind 
nothing to account for the noise. 1 now left the candle burning, though I never 
sleep comfortably with a light in my room ; I got into bed, but felt, it must be 
acknowledged, not a little perplexed at not being able to detect the cause ol 
the noise, nor to account lor its cessation when the candle was lighted. While 
ruminating on these things 1 fell asleep, and began to dream about murders 
and secret burials and all sorts of horrible things; and just as I fancied my- 
self knocked down by a knight templar, 1 awoke and found the sun shining 
brightly." 

This ancient house was originally the home o( a lodge of Knights Templar, 
ami the dungeon, which is now said to be appropriately decorated with skulls 
.in.l other human bones, was formerly their stronghold. At this weird man- 
sion, within a lew minutes' ride of the metropolis, we will close our descriptive 
journej through Midland England, and its mystic tale will recall that passage 
from the Book oj Qays which counsels — 

•• I toubtles - i in e ai c no ghosts ; 
\ el somehow it i> better not i" move, 
I. it cold hands seize upon us from behind." 



IV. 
THE RIVER THAMES AND LONDON. 

The Thames Head — Cotswold Hills Seven Springs -Cirencester Cheltenham Sudeley I astle ' hav 
enage — Shifford -Lechlade — Stanton Harcourl Cumnoi Hall Fair Rosamond Godstow Nunnery - 
Oxford — Oxford Colleges — Christ Church Corpus Christi—Merton— Oriel All Souls -University 
Queen's Magdalen Brasenose — New College RadclifFe Library — Bodleian Library — Lincoln 
I iceter — Wadham -Keble — Trinity— Balliol— St. John's Pembroke Oxford Churches Oxford i is 
tic — Carfax Conduit Banbury Broughton Castle — Woodstock Marlborough Blenheim— Minster 
Lovel Bicester Eynsham — Abingdon — Radley — Bacon, Rich, and Holt Clifton Hampden Cavers 
ham— Reading Maidenhead Bisham Abbey — Vicai oi Bra) Eton College Windsoi i astle 
Vlagna I harta Island -Cowey Stakes — Ditton — Twickenham London Fire Monumenl St. Paul's 
Cathedral— Wcstniin itei Abbej The Tower Lollards and Lambeth Bow i hurch St. Bride's 
Whitehall — Horse Guards St. [ames Palace Buckingham Palace Kensington Palace Houses oi 
Parliament Hyde Park — Marble Arch -Albert Memorial South Kensington Museum Royal Ex- 
change — Bank ol England Mansion House Inns of Court British Museum Some London Seem 
—The Underground Railway Holland House Greenwich Tilbury Fort The Thames Mouth. 

THE THAMES HEAD. 

rHE river Thames is the largest and most important river in England, and 
carries the greatest commerce in the world. From the Cotswold Mills 
in Gloucestershire it flows to the eastward past London, and alter a course oi 
two hundred and twenty miles empties into the North Sea. I he confluence 
of many small streams draining the Cotswolds makes the Thames, bul its 
traditional source, or "The Thames Head," is in Trewsbury Mead, about three 
miles from Cirencester, and at an elevation ol three hundred and seventy-six 
feel above the sea-level. The waters of the Infant stream are at once pressed 
into service for pumping into the higher levels ol a canal, which pierces the 
Cotswolds by a long tunnel, and connects the Thames with the Severn River, 
flowing along their western base. It receives many tiny rivulets that swell 
its current, until at Cricklade the most ambitious of these affluents joins it, and 
even lays claim to be the original stream. This is the Churn, rising at the " Seven 
Springs," about three miles from Cheltenham, and also on the slope ol the Cots- 
wolds. The Churn claims the honor because it is twenty miles long, while the 
Thames down to Cricklade measures only ten miles. But they come together 
affectionately, and journey on through rich meadows much like other streams, 
until the clear waters have acquired sufficient dignity to turn a mill. 

18 137 



i 3 8 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE 1ND DESCRIPTIVE. 



Cirencester (pronounced Cisseter), which thus has the honor oj being .1 near 
neighbor ol the ["names I lead, is an ancient town, occupying the site ot the 
Roman city ol Corinium, and is known as the " metropolis oi the Cotswolds." 
Here four greal Roman roads met, and among the many Roman remains it 

has is part ol the ruins ol an amphitheatre, h was a famous Stronghold before 
the Saxons came to England, ami Polydorus tills how one Gormund, an Afri- 
can prune, in the dim a^es ol the past, besieged it for seven long years. Then 
he bethought him that if he could only set lire to the thatched roofs of the 
houses he could in the commotion thai would follow force an entrance. So he 




^5ftk 



set his troops ,u work catching sparrows, ami when many were caught fastened 
combustibles under their tails and let them loose. Hie poor birds flew straight 
to their nests under the thatches, set them in a blaze, and while the pi ople were 
bus) putting out the tires Gormund got into the town. In memory o( this it 
w.e. afterwards called the " Cit) of Sparrows." The Normans built a strong 
castle here, and Stephen destroyed it. 1 he castle was rebuilt, and suffered 
the usual taie in the successive civil wars, and in the Revolution ol [688 the 
bloodshed was at Cirencester. It had a magnificent abbey, built ov the 
Black Canons in the twelfth century, and ruled by a mitred al>1>ot who had a 
seat in Parliament. A fine gateway ol this abbe) remains, and also the beauti- 
ful church with its pretty tower. It is known now as the parish church ol St. 
|ohn, and has been thoroughl) restored. Within are the monuments ot the 
Bathurst family, whose seat at Oakley Park, near the town, las nine charming 
scenery. Tope's Seat, a favorite resort o( the poet, is also in the park. Chel- 
tenham, near which is the "Seven Springs," the source o\ the Churn, is a 
popular watering-place, with the carl ol Eldon's seat at Stowell Park not far 



SUDELEY CASTLE AND CHAVL WAGE. i .^0 



away. Mere in 1864 a Roman villa was discovered, which has been entirely 
excavated. It lias twenty chambers communicating with a long corridor, and 
there are several elegant tessellated pavements, while the walls are still stand- 
ing to a height of lour feet. Two temples have also been found in the imme 
diate neighborhood. Substantial buildings have been erected to protect the < 



P 



recious rem; 



ains from the weather. 



SUDELEY CASTLE AND CHAVENAG] 
In the Cotswolds is the castle dl Sudeley, its ruins being in rather good 
preservation. It was an extensive work, built in the reign oi Henry VI., and 
was destroyed in the Civil Wars; it was a famous place in the olden time, and 
was regarded as one of the most magnificent castles in England when Queen 
Elizabeth made her celebrated progress thither in 1502. Alter the death of 
Henry VIII., his queen, Catharine Parr, married Lord Seymour oi Sudeley, 
and she died and was buried in this castle: it is related that her leaden coffin 
was exhumed in 1 7S2, two hundred and eighty years alter her death, and the 
remains were found in excellent preservation. Among the records oi the 
castle is a manuscript stating that Catharine Parr was told by an astrologer 
who calculated her nativity that she was horn to sit in the "highest state of 
imperial majesty," and that she had all the eminent stars and planets in her 
house : this worked such lofty conceit in the lady that " her mother could never 
make her sew or do any small work, saying her hands were ordained to touch 
crowns and sceptres, not needles and thimbles." Near Tatbury, and also in the 
Cotswolds, is the source of the classic river Avon, and north west oi the town 
is the fine Elizabethan mansion of Chavenage, with its attractive hall and chapel, 
The original furniture, armor, and weapons are still preserved. I his was the 
old manor-house of the family of Stephens, and Nathaniel represented Glou 
cestershire in Parliament at the time of the com action of Charles I. : it is related 
that he was only persuaded to agree to the condemnation by the impetuous 
Ireton, who came there and sat up all night in urgent argument "to whet Ins 
almost blunted purpose." Stephens died in May, 1649, expressing regret for 
having participated in the execution oi his sovereign, We are further told in 
the traditions of the house that when all the relatives were assembled for the 
funeral, and the courtyard was crowded with equipages, another coach, gor- 
geously ornamented and drawn by black horses, solemnly approached the 
porch: when it halted, the door opened, and, clad in his shroud, the shade oi 
Stephens glided into the carriage ; tin- door was closed by an unseen hand, and 
the coach moved off, the driver being a beheaded man, arrayed in royal vest 
ments and wearing the insignia of the Star and Garter. Passing the gatewa) 



I 1. 1 



/ VGl \ND, PICTURl 'Ql \ND DESCRIPTIVE. 



ol the courtyard, the equipage vanished in flames. [Yadition maintains also 
1 1 1. 1 1 every lord <>i Chavenage dying in the manor house since has departed 

in the Name awful manner. 

I'he I 'h. imes flows on alter its junction with the Churn, and receives other 
pretty streams, all coming out <>i the Cotswolds, 1 he coin ami the Leche, 
coming in mar l.eehl.ule, swell its waters sufficiently to make it navigable lor 
barges, anil the river sets up a towing path, lor here the canal from the Severn 
joins it. The ii\er passes in solitude out oi Gloucestershire, ami then for 
miles becomes the boundarj between Oxfordshire on the north ami Berkshire 
on the south. I'he eaiial has been almost superseded l>v the railway, so that 
passing barges are rare, lull the towing path and the locks remain, with an 
occasional rustle dam thrown across the gradually widening river. In this 

almost deserted region is the isolated hamlet ol Shillord, where King Alfred 

held a parliament a thousand years ago. Near it is the New Bridge, a solid 
structure, but the oldest bridge that crosses the Thames, for it was "new" just 
six hundred years ago. The Thames then receives the Windrush and the 
Evenlode, and it passes over frequent weirs thai have become miniature rapids, 
yet not too dangerous lor an expert oarsman to guide his boat through safely. 
Thus the famous river comes to Bablock Hythe Ferry, and at once enters an 
historic recion. 



i 



.1 VNTON HARCOURT \N1> CUMNOR HAM,. 

A short distance from the ferry in Oxfordshire is Stanton Harcourt, with its 

three upright sandstones, "the Devil's Coits," sup- 
posed to have been put there to commemorates 
battle between the Saxons and the Britons more 
than twelve centuries ago. The village gets its 
name from the large and ancient mansion of the 
Harcourts, ol which, however, l>ut little remains. 

Tope passed the greater part ol tWO Summers in 
the deserted house in a tower that hears his name, 
.\[\A where he w role the tilth volume ol his iransla 
lion ol I lomer in the topmost room : he recorded 
the fact ^w a pane oi glass in the window in 1718, 
and this pane has been carefully preserved. The 
kitchen o\ the strange old house still remains, and 
is a remarkable one, being described as "either a 
kitchen within a chimnev or a kitchen without one." 



ST*' " 




DOVKCOTK, STANTON n u>< i>i u I 



In the lo 



wer part this kitchen is a large square room , above it is octangular 



STANTOA HARC0UR7 \ND CUMNOR //I//. 



i |i 






and ascends like a lower, the fires being made againsl the wall ;, and the moke 
climbing up them until il reaches the conical apex, where ii goes oul ol loop 
hole, on any side according to the wind. The distance from the floor to the 
apex is aboul sixty feet, and the interior is thickly coated with soot. The fire 
places are large enough to roasi an ox whole. 

Not far from the ferry, in Berkshire, is the ancienl manor house ol Cumnor 
Hall, sacred to the melancholy memorj ol poor Amy Robsart. Shi was the 
wife ol Dudley, Earl ol Leicester, and when his ambition led him to seek 
Queen Elizabeth's hand ii was necessarj to gel her oul ol the way, So he 
senl Ann to ( lumnor, 
where his sen am An 
thony Forster lived. 
At first poison was 

iried, hnl she siispccl ,-.'; -mmM" 

ed it, and would nol 
lake I he poi 1011. I hen, 
sending all the people 
.1 v ay, Sir Richard Var- 
ney and Forster, with n 
another man, si i angled 
her, and afterwards 

ili ew her down stairs, «wti 

breaking her neck. Ii 

wa. al hrst given oul 
that poor Amy had 
fallen b) a< < idem and 
killed herself, bui people began to suspecl differently, and the third party to 
the murder, being arrested for a felony and threatening to tell, was privately 
made away with m prison by Leicester's order,. Both Varney and Forster 
became melancholy before their deaths, and finally a kinswoman ol the earl, on 
her dying bed, iold the whole story, [he earl had Amy buried with greal 
pomp at Oxford, I mi ii is rei oid' d i hat the i ha plain by accidenl "tripped once 
or twice in his speech by recommending to their memories thai virtuous lady 
so pitifully murdered, instead of saying pitifully slain" Sir Waller Scotl has 
woven her sad yei romantic story into hi i tale ol Kenuworth; and to prove how 
am hi i ion overleaps itself, we find Lord Burghley, among other reasons which he 
in red upon the queen why she should nol marrj Leicestei aying thai "hi is 
in t.i in d by the murder ol his wife." Hie queen remained a virgin sovereign, 
and Leicester's crime availed only to blacken his character, 




CUM OH 'in Mill \nn 



1. 1 J 



ENC /.- 4 ND, PICTL RESQ ( 'E A ND DESCRIP Tl I E. 




-llUV NUNNERY. 



FAIR ROSAMOND. 

The Thames flows on past the wooded glades of Wytham Abbey, and then 
revives the memory of Fair Rosamond as it skirts the scanty ruins of Godstow 
Nunnery. This religious house upon the river bank was founded in the reign 

of Henry I., and the ruins are some 

remains of the walls and of a small 

'■i=£?Vv chapter-house in which Rosamond's 

corpse was deposited. It was at Wood- 
stock, in Oxfordshire, then a royal 
palace, that in the twelfth century 
Henry II. built "Fair Rosamond's 
Rower" for his charmer, who was the 
daughter of Lord Clifford. This bower 
was surrounded by a labyrinth. Oueen 
Eleanor, whom the king had married 
only from ambitious motives, was much 
older than he, and he had two sons by 
Rosamond, whom he is said to have 
first met at Godstow Nunnery. The 
bower consisted of arched vaults underground. There are various legends 
of the discovery of Rosamond by Eleanor, the most popular being that the 
queen discovered the ball of silk the king used to thread the maze of the 
labyrinth, and following it found the door and entered the bower. She is said 
to have ill-treated and even poisoned Rosamond, but the belief now is that 
Rosamond retired to the nunnery from sorrow at the ultimate defection ot her 
royal lover, ami did not die for several years. The story has been the favorite 
theme of the poets, and we are told that her body was buried in the nunnery, 
and wax lights placed around the tomb and kept continually burning. Subse- 
quently, her remains were reintenvd in the chapter-house, with a Latin inscrip- 
tion, which is thus translated : 

"This tomb doth here enclose the world's most beauteous rose — 
Rose passing sweet erewhile, now naught but odor vile." 

o.\ FORD. 

As we float along the quiet Thames the stately towers and domes of 
the university city ol Oxford come in sight, and appear to suddenly rise from 
behind a green railway embankment. Here the Cherwell flows along the Christ 
Church meadows to join the great river, and we pause at the ancient Ousen- 
ford — or the lord over the Ouse or Water — a name which time has changed 



OXFORD. 



M3 



to Oxford. The origin of the famous university is involved in obscurity. The 
city is mentioned as the scene of important political and military events from 
the time of King Alfred, but the first undisputed evidence that it was a seat of 
learning dates from the twelfth century. Religious houses existed there in ear- 
lier years, an J to these schools were attached for the education of the clergy. 
From these schools sprang the secular institutions that finally developed into 
colleges, and common interest led to the association from which ultimately came 
the university. The first known application of the word to this association 
occurs in a statute of King John. In the thirteenth century there were three 




MAGDALEN COLLEGE, FROM THE CHERWKLL. 

thousand students at Oxford, and Henry III. granted the universitv its first 
charter. In those early times the university grew in wealth and numbers, and 
intense hostility was developed between the students and townspeople, leading 
to the quarrels between "Town and Gown" that existed for centuries, and 
caused frequent riots and bloodshed. A penance for one of these disturb- 
ances, which occurred in 1355 and sacrificed several lives, continued to be 
kept until 1825. The religious troubles in Henry VIII.'s time reduced the 
students to barely one thousand, but a small part of whom attended the col- 
leges, so that in 1546 only thirteen degrees were conferred. In 1603 the uni- 
versity was given representation in Parliament; it was loyal to Charles I., and 
melted its plate to assist him, so that after his downfall it was plundered, and 



'44 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




DORMEK WINDOW, taERTON 
( OLLEGE. 



almost ceased to have an existence as an insti- 
tution of learning; it has since had a quiet and 
generally prosperous history. The university 
comprises twenty-one colleges, the oldest being 
University College, founded in 1249, and the 
youngest the Keble Me- 
morial College, founded 
in 1S70. University Col- 
lege, according to tradi- 
tion, represents a school 
founded by King Alfred 
in 872, and it celebrated 
its millennial anniversary 
in 1872. Balliol College, 
founded between 1263 
and 1 26S, admits no one 
who claims any privilege 
on account ot rank or 
wealth, and is regarded 

as having perhaps the highest standard of schol- 
arship at Oxford. Christ Church College is the 
monk pulpit, magdai en i ollege. most extensive in buildings, numbers, and endow- 
ments, and is a cathedral establishment as well as col- ^, 
lege. There are now about eighty-five hundred mem- 
bers of the university and twenty-five hundred under- 
graduates. The wealth ol some 
of the colleges is enormous, and 
they are said to own altogether 
nearly two hundred thousand 
acres of land in different parts 
of the kingdom, and to have 
about $2,100,000 annual revenues, 
of which the) expend not over 
>i. 500,000, the remainder accu- 
mulating. They also have in 
their gift tour hundred and forty- 
four benefices, with an annual in- 
come of $950,000. It costs a stu- 
dent about 51 200 to $1 500 a year 






GABLE A I ST. ALUA1 E S 
COLLEGE. 



now WINDOW, MAGDALEN 
COLLEGE. 



THE OXFORD COLLEGES. 



to live at Oxford, and 
about $325 in university 
and college fees from 
matriculation to gradua-- 
tion, when he gets his 
degree of B. A., or, if in- 
attentive, fails to pass the 
examination, and, in Ox- 
ford parlance, is said to 
Ijl' " plucked." 

THE OXFORD COLLEGES. 

The enumeration of the 
colleges which make up 
the university will nat- 
urally begin with the 
greatest, Christ Church, 
founded by Cardinal Wol- 
sey, of which the principal 
facade extends four hun- 
dred feet alonLT St. Al- 
date's Street, and has a 
noble gateway in the cen- 
tre surmounted by a six- 
sided tower with a dome- 
like roof. Here hangs the 
great bell of Oxford, " Old 
Tom," weighing seven- 
teen thousand pounds, 
which every night, just 
after nine o'clock, strikes 
one hundred and one 
strokes, said to be in re- 
membrance of the num- 
ber of members the col- 
lege had at its foundation. 
Wolsey's statue stands in I 
the gateway which 
into the great quadrangle, 




GATEWAY OF CHRIST CHURCH COLLEGE. 



I u, 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




MKKl-ON COLLEGE CIIMM'.I. 



called by the- students, for short, "Tom 
Quad." Here are the lodgings of the 
dean and canons, and also the Great 
1 [all, the finest in Oxford, and the 
room where the sovereign is received 
whenever visiting the city. The an- 
cient kitchen adjoins the hall, ami near 
l>y is the entrance to the cathedral, 
which has been restored, and the an- 
cient cloisters. From the buildings a 
meadow extends down to the rivers, 
the Cherwell on the left and the 
Thames (here called the Isis) on tin- 
right, which join at the lower part oi 
tue meadow. Beautiful walks are laid 
out upon it, including the famous Ox- 
ford promenade, the Broad Walk, a 
stately avenue of elms bordering one- 
side of the meadow. Mere, on the 

afternoon ol Show Sunday, which comes immediately before Commemoration 

I >ay, nearly all the members of the university and the students, in academic 

costume, make a promenade, presenting an animated scene. 
Corpus Christi College was founded by Bishop 

box ot Winchester in 1516, ami its quadrangle. 

which remains much as at the foundation, con- 
tains the founder's statue, and also a remarkable 

dial, in the centre of which is a perpetual calendar. 

This college is not very marked in architecture. 

It stands at the back of Christ Church, ami ad- 
joining it is Merton College, founded in 1264 by 

Walter de Meiiou. His idea was to forbid the - 

students following in after life any other pursuit 

than that of parish priest. The chapel of Merton 

is one ol tin- lines: in Oxford, and its massive 

tower is a city landmark. The entrance-gateway. 

surmounted by a sculptured representation of St. 

John the Baptist, is attractive, an 1 the two college 

quadrangles are picturesque, the " Mob Quad," 

or library quadrangle, being five hundred years 




GATEWAY, MERTON COLLEGE. 



THE OXFORD COLLEGES. 



M7 



old, with the Treasury and its high-pitched ashlar roof and dormer windows 
above one of the entrance-passages. St. Alban Hall, built about 1230, adjoins 
Merton, and is a Gothic structure with a curious old bell-tower. Oriel College 
stands opposite Corpus Christi, but the ancient buildings of the foundation in 
1324-26 have all been superseded by comparatively modern structures of the 
seventeenth century: though without any striking architectural merits, the 
hall and chapel of this college are extremely picturesque. Its fame is not so 
much from its buildings as from some of its fellows, Whately, Keble, Wilber- 
force, Newman, Pusey, and Arnold 
having been among them. St. Man's 
1 [all, an offshoot founded in the four- 
teenth century, stands near this col- 
lege. All Souls College is on the 
High Street, and was founded in 
1437, its buildings being, however, 
modern, excepting one quadrangle. 
In the chapel is a magnificent rere- 
dos, presented by Lord Bathurst, 
who was a fellow ot All Souls, and 
containing figures representing most f| 
of the fellows of his time ; in tin- 
library are Wren's original designs 
for building St. Paul's. This col- 
lege was founded by Archbishop 
Chichele for "the hele of his soul " 
and of the souls of all those who 
perished in the French wars of King 
Henry V. ; hence its name. We 

are told that the good archbishop was much troubled whe 
lege, and there appeared to him in a dream a " right godly personage," who 
advised him to build it on the High Street, and at a certain spot where he 
would be sure in digging to find a "mallard, imprisoned but well fattened, in 
the sewer." He hesitated, but all whom he consulted advised him to make the 
trial, and accordingly, on a fixed day after mass, with due solemnity the digging 
began. They had not dug long, the story relates, before tiny heard "amid the 
earth horrid strugglings and flutterings and violent quackings of the distressed 
mallard." When he was brought out he was as big as an ostrich, and " much 
wonder was thereat, for the lycke had not been seen in this londe nor in onie 
odir." The Festival of the Mallard was long held in commemoration of this 




ORIEL COLLEGE. 

re to locate his col- 



148 



VGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



event, at which was sung the " Merry Soul; of the All Souls Mallard," be- 
ginning — 

"Griffin, bustard, turkey, capon, 
1 1 1 othei hungry mortals gape on, 
And mi the bones their stomach till hard . 
But let All Souls men have their mallard. 

Oh, by the blood of King Edward, 

It was a wopping, wopping mallard !" 

While the festival has passed away, the song is still sung at Oxford, and the 
tale has given rise to much literature, there having been vigorous contests 
waged over the authenticity of the mallard. 

University College, also on the High Street, though the earliest founded, 
now has no building older than the seventeenth century. It has an imposing 
Gothic front with two tower-gateways, while the recently constructed New 
Building is an elegant structure erected in 1850. Queen's College, founded 
in [341 1)\' Queen Philippa's confessor, and hence its name, is a modern build- 
ing by Wren and his pupils. St. Edmund Hall, opposite Queen's College, is a 
plain building, but with magnificent ivy on its walls. 



MAGDALEN AND BRASENOSE, 

Bishop Patten of Winchester, who was surnamed Waynflete, founded Mag- 
dalen College in 145S. It stands by the side of the CherweH, and its graceful 
tower, nearly four hundred years old, rises one hundred and forty-five feet — one 

of the most beautiful constructions in 
Oxford. Its quadrangles are fine, es- 
pecially the one known as the Cloisters, 
which remains much as it was in the 
time ot the founder, and is ornamented 
with rude sandstone statues erected in 
honor of a visit from King |ames 1. In 
accordance with ancient custom, on the 
morning of the first of May, just as five 
o'clock strikes, a solemn Te Deum is 
sung on the top of Magdalen Tower, 
where the choristers assemble in sur- 
plices ami with uncovered heads. When it closes the crowd on the ground 
below give out discordant blasts from myriads of tin horns, but the Magdalen 
chime ot bells, said to be "the most tunable and melodious rinsj' of lulls in all 
these parts and beyond," soon drowns the discord, and gives a glad welcome 




MAGDALEN COLLEGE CLOISTERS. 



MAGDALEN AND BRASENOSE. 



149 



to the opening of spring. This custom survives from the time of Henry VII., 
anil the produce of two acres of land given to the college l>y that kin- is used 
to pay for a feast for the choristers, spread later in the day in the college hall. 
The: college has a meadow and 
small deer-park attached, known 
as the Magdalen Walks, and 
encircled by the arms of the 
Cherwell, while avenues of trees 
along raised dykes intersect it. 
The avenue on the north side 
of this meadow is known as 
"Addison's Walk," and was 
much frequented by him when 
at this college. The little deer- 
park, a secluded spot, abounds 
with magnificent elms. It was 
at Magdalen that Wolsey was 
educated, being known as the 
" Boy Bachelor," as he got his 
B. A. degree at the early age 
of fifteen. The Botanic Garden 
is opposite Magdalen College, 
having a fine gateway with 
statues of Charles I. and II. 
Magdalen College School, a 
modern building, but an or- 
ganization coeval with the col- 
lege, is a short distance to the 
westward. 

The King's Hall, commonly 
known as Brasenose College, 
and over the entrance of which 
is a prominent brazen nose, I 

still retains its chief buildings founders tower, magdalen college. 

as originally founded by the Bishop of Lincoln and Sir Richard Sutton in 151 2. 
The entrance-tower was recently restored, and the rooms occupied by Bishop 
Heber, who was a member of this college, are still pointed out, with their win- 
dows looking upon a large horse-chestnut tree in the adjoining Exeter Gardens. 
This famous college is said to occupy the spot where King Alfred's palace stood. 




i5o 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



and hence its name of the King's Hall, which the king in his laws styled his 
palace. The part of the palace which was used for the brew-house, or the 
brasinium, afterwards became the college, and as early as Edward I. this found 
ocular demonstration by the fixing of a brazen nose upon the gate. This is 
also a relic of Friar Bacon's brazen head. We are told that this famous friar, 
who lived at Oxford in the thirteenth century, became convinced, "after great 
study," that if he should succeed in making a head of brass which could speak, 

•' he might be able to 
surround all England 
with a wall of brass." 
So, with the assistance 
of another friar and the 
devil, he went to work 
and accomplished it, but 
with the drawback that 
the brazen head when 
finished was " warranted 
to speak in the course 
of one month," but it 
was uncertain just when 
it would speak, and " if 
they heard it not before 

■ r L'rtfti7 jft '' ,Kul ll " ,K ' s l >( ' a king, all 
their labor would be 
lost.'' They watched it 
three weeks, but fatigue 
overmastered them, and 
Bacon set his servant on 
watch, with orders to 
awaken them if the head 

MAGDALEN COLLEGE. should Speak. At the 

end of one half hour the fellow heard the head say. "Time is;" at the end of 
another, "Time was ;" and at the end of a third half hour, "Time's past," when 
down tell the head with a tremendous crash. The blockhead thought his mas- 
ter would be angry if disturbed by such trifles, ami this ended the experiment 
with the brazen head. Yet Friar Bacon was a much wiser man than would be 
supposed by those who only know him from this tale. He was esteemed the 
most learned man ever at the great university, and it is considered doubtful 
it any there in later years surpassed him. 




% 



NEW COLLEGE AND RADCLIFFE LIBRAR 



i =;i 



NEW COLLEGE AND RADCLIFFE LIBRARY. 

William of Wykeham founded the New College, or the College of St. Mary 
Winton, in 1380. It has a noble entrance, and in a niche above the gateway 
is the Virgin, to whom an angel and the founder are addressing themselves in 




prayer. The chapel has a massive detach 

ed bell-tower, and in its windows are some 

fine stained glass, while the silver staff of 

William of Wykeham is still preserved 

there. The cloisters are extensive and 

picturesque, the ribbed roof resembling the bottom of a boat, while the restored 

hall has a fine oaken roof. The New College gardens are enclosed on three 

sides by the ancient walls of the city, which are well preserved, and the enclo- 



■52 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 





ft, 

NEW i 01. LEGE. 

centre oi which is 
located the hand- 
some Radcliffe Li- 
brary, with colleges, 
c h 11 rc hes, and 
schools all around 
the square. 1 )r. 
Radcliffe, who was 
the court-physician 
of King William 111. 
ami Queen Anne, 
founded this library, 
which is in a hand 
some rotunda sur 
mounted by a dome 
on an octagonal 
base. 1 In- struc- 
ture, which is one 
hundred feet in diame 
to a height oi one lui 
forty feet, and from the top then 
is a fine view ol the city. f*o t h< 
northward, at a short distance, are 
the Schools, a quadrangular buildin 
now chiefly occupied In' the famous 
Bodleian Library. From Radcliffe 



sure is one of the most beautiful in Oxford. Through 
a door in a corner of the gardens there is a passage- 
way opening out of one of the bastions of the old 
walls into a strip of ground called the " Slype," where 

a tine view is hail of the bastions, with the college bell- 
tower and chapel behind them. In making a. recent 
addition to the buildings of this college on the edge 
of the " Slype," the workmen in digging for the founda- 
tions discovered the remains of a mammoth. 

New College Lane leads to Radcliffe Square, in the 




rHE RADCLIFFE LIBRARY, FROM Nil QUADRANGLE 
OF BRASENOSE. 



NEW COLLEGE AND RADCLIFFE LIBRARY. 



3o 



Square the entrance is through a vaulted passage, the 
central gate-tower being a remarkable example of the 
combination of the five orders of architecture piled one 
above the other. In this building, on the lower floor, 
the public examinations of the candidates for degrees 
are held, while above is the library which Sir Thomas 
Bodley founded in the sixteenth century, and which 
contains three hundred thousand volumes, including 
many ancient and highly-prized works in print and 
manuscript. 

Lincoln College was founded by Richard Flemyng, 
Bishop of Lincoln, in 1427. Here John Wesley was a 

member 





DINING-HALL EXETER COL- 
LEGE. 



Ill V COLLEGE (II U'l 1 . 



and the 
pulpit from which 
he preached is still 

kept as a precious relic. Opposite to 
Lincoln is Jesus College, founded by 
Queen Elizabeth in 1571, though others 
assisted ; it was intended to be exclu- 
sively for Welshmen, but this has since 
been changed. The chapel has a double 
chancel. Alongside ot Lincoln is Exeter 
College, founded by Walter Stapleton of 
Exeter in 1314; this is one of the largest 
colleges, the greater part ol the buildings 
firing modern ; they are among the finest 
in Oxford. The hall, restored in the pres- 
ent century, has a high-pitched timber roof, 
while the chapel, which is one ol the most 
remarkable edifices in Oxford, has a thin, 
small spire that is conspicuous from a great 
distance. The Ashmolean Museum adjoins 
Exeter College, and next to this is the Shel- 
donian Theatre, built in 1669 by Archbishop 
Sheldon of Canterbury, where the annual 
commemoration is held and the honorary 
degrees are conferred. Not far away is 
Wadham College, founded in 1613 by Nich- 
olas Wadham and Dorothy his wife. It has 



■5 1 



F.NGl \ND, PICTURl 'QUI XND DESCRIPTIVE. 



excellent buildings mid a most beautiful garden, rhere is a new Museum oi 
Natural Historx in the park near by, and also Keble College, founded in [868 
as .1 memorial oi Rev, [ohn Keble, the author oi the Christian )'i\ir. Its 
buildings are of variegated brick, the chapel being the loftiest, most costly, 
and finest ft its style in Oxford. Hie building is a perfect glare oi coloring. 

Trinity College was founded in 1554 by Sir Thomas 
Pope, its tower and chapel are Grecian, and the 
chapel has a most beautiful carved screen and altar- 
piece. The library contains a chalice that once be- 
Blf'^Ir^ f longed to St. Alhan's Abbey. Kettel Hall, now a 

private dwelling, is a picturesque building in front oi 
Trinity. On Broad Street, where Trinity stands, is also 
Balliol College, founded in the thirteenth century bj 
|ohn Balliol. None oi the existing buildings are earlier 
than the fifteenth century, while the south front, with its 
I massive tower, has |iist been rebuilt. It was here that 
the martyrs Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley were burned. 
A little farther along the same street is St. [ohn's Col 
lege, which Sir Thomas White founded in 1557. It is 
fronted l>\ a terrace planted with fine elms. Its quad- 
rangles And cloisters are much admired, especially the 
window in si iohn's coi \ener.iNe oriel windows and quaint stone gables oi the 

1 1 ci . GARDI N 1 HUNT. ... c . T , . , , , , , 

library. St. |olm s gardens are regarded as among the 
most attractive in Oxford. Opposite St. [ohn's are the nniversits J-*-** 
galleries, with their display ol the Tom I ret Marbles and Raphael and . ,. .Rj 
\ 1 1» ht -1 Angelo's paintings and drawings, and lie hi ml this building is 
Worcester College, founded in 1714 bj Sir Thomas Cookes. a-a*-' 1 

Its gardens contain a lake. Pembroke College is opposite ta^^^V 
Christ Church, and was founded in 1624 in honor oi the 
Earl of Pembroke, then the chancellor oi the university. 
While its entrance gateway and hall, recently built, are fine, 
the other buildings are not attractive. The chief remem- 
brance oi Pembroke is of Dr. Samuel Johnson, who oc 
cupied apartments over the original gateway, but was 
compelled bj povertj to leave the college before taking 
his degree. Hiis completes the description oi the col tower st. jorns collect 
leges, halls, and schools of the great university, which presents an arraj ol 
institutions of learning unrivalled in am part of the world, and oi which Eng 

lishmen are iusth proud. 





OXFORD CHURCHES AND CASTLE. 



'55 



There are som< 
St. Mary th<: Virgin, conspicuous 
from its Decorated spin- rising 
one hundred and eighty-eight feet, 
which is a memorial oi Queen 
Eleanor of Castile. A short dis 
tance to the westward is All Saints 
Church. Fronting Christ Church 
is St. Aldate's Church, also with 
a lofty spire and I )ecorated tower. 
Like most English towns, Oxford 
had a castle, but its remains are 
now reduced to a solitary tower, 
a lew fragments of wall, and a 
high mound. This castle has 
long been the property oi Christ 
Church, and was used lor a prison, 
whence Cranmer and his fellow 
martyrs went to the stake. I he 
old tower was built in the days 

of William Rufus. Beneath the 
ruins is a crypt known as Maud's 
( lhapel. In the centre of the mound 
is an octagonal vaulted chamber, 
approached by a long flight of st< p 
and containing a well. It was in 
this castle that the empress Maud 
was besieged l>y King Stephen in 
I 141 , hut eS( aped in the night, the 
castle surrendering next morning. 
I In- around was covered with snow 
at tile time, and the empress, with 
three attendants, clad in while, 
pa ised unnoticed through the line, 
of the besiegers and < ro ;sed the 
I names on the i( e. fust before 
this Maud escaped from the castle 



OXFORD CHURI ll ES AM) CASTLE. 

me churches in Oxford, notably the university church ol 






A 




// ■ 


A..^ 





J/ity ":■/''■/* 



W/>~ 

ff, ,. 0, ttid/IFiZf 



156 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



of Devizes as a dead body drawn on a hearse. The castle of Oxford has been 
in a dilapidated condition since Edward III.'s time. As an evidence of the 

change of opinion, the Martyrs' 
Memorial stands on St. Giles 
Street in honor of the martyrs 
who found the old tower of the 
castle their prison-house until the 
bigots of that day were ready to 
burn them at the stake in front 
of Balliol College. 

The intersection of the four prin- 
cipal streets of old Oxford makes 
what is called the Carfax (a word 
derived from qitatre votes), and 
here in the olden time stood a 
picturesque conduit. Conduits in 
former years were ornaments in 
many English towns, and some 
of them still remain in their orig- 
inal locations. This conduit, which 
stood in the way of traffic, was pre- 
sented as a nuisance as long ago 
as the time of Laud, and Lord 
Harcourt in 1787 removed it to 
his park at Nuneham. One of 
the curious changes that have 
come over some Oxford land- 
marks is related of a group of 
statues in the entrance to the 
Schools, where the Bodleian Li- 
brary is located. This group rep- 
resents Mater Academia giving a 
book to King James I., sitting in 
his chair of state, while winged 
Fame trumpets the gift through- 
out the world. When the king 
saw this, embellished with appro- 
priate mottoes, all of which were 
doriously gilt, the ancient historian says he exclaimed, " By my soul ! this is too 




ALL SAINTS, FROM HIGH STREET. 



OXFORD CHURCHES AND CASTLE. 



•57 




glorious for Jeamy," and 
caused the gilded mottoes 
to be " vvhited out." Orig- 
inally, the statue of the 
king held a sceptre in his 
right hand, and a book, 
commonly taken for the 
Bible, in his left. Both 
have disappeared. The 
sceptre is said to have 
fallen upon the passing 
of the Reform Bill, and the 
book came down about the 
time of the abolition of the 
University Tests. The east- 
ern part of Oxford is mea- 
dow- and garden-land, ex- 
tending down to the two 
famous rivers which unite 
just below the town, and 

along whose shores the carfax conduit. 

racing-boats in which the students take so much interest are moored. Pretty 
bridges span both streams, and we follow down the Thames again, skirting 

along its picturesque shores past Iffley, with its 
romantic old mill and the ancient church with its 
square tower rising behind, well-known landmarks 
that are so familiar to boating-men, till we come to 
Nuneham Park, with the old Carfax Conduit set on 
an eminence, and Blenheim Woods looming up in 
the background, as we look towards Oxford. 

The church of Iffley is beautifully situated on the 
Thames, but little is known of its origin or history. 
It was in existence in 1 189, when King Henry II. 
died, and its architecture indicates that it could 
scarcely have been built much before that time. 
It is an unusually good specimen of the Norman 
style, and is in wonderful preservation, considering 
its age. This church is peculiarly rich in its door- 
iffley mill. ways, having three of great value, and each differ- 




158 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




ing from the other. The 
southern doorway is enrich- 
ed with sculptured flowers, a 
style that is almost unique in 
Norman architecture; it also 
contains rudely carved imita- 
tions of Roman centaurs. On 
the south side of the church 
is an ancient cross and one 
of the most venerable yew 
trees in the kingdom, in the 
trunk of which time has made 
a hollow where a man could 
easily conceal himself. There 
is not on all the Thames a 
scene more loved by artists 
than that at Iffley, with its old 
mill and church embosomed 
in foliage, and having an oc- 
casional fisherman lazily ang- 
ling in the smooth waters be- 
fore them, while the Oxford 
oarsmen, some in fancy cos- 
tumes, paddle by. 



BANBURY AND BROUGHTON. 

II we go up the Cherwell towards the northern part of Oxfordshire, a 
brief visit can lie paid to the famous town of Banbury, noted for its "castle, 
cross, and cakes." This was an ancient Roman station, and the amphitheatre 
still exists just out of town. The castle was built in the twelfth century, and 
many conflicts raged around it. Queen Elizabeth granted the castle to Lord 
Saye and Sele, ami one of his successors first organized the revolt against 
Charles 1. at his neighboring mansion of Broughton. Banbury was a great 
Puritan stronghold, and it is related that when a book descriptive of Banbury 
was being printed in those days, it contained a sentence describing Banbury as 
remarkable lor its cheese, cakes, and ale. One Camden, looking at the press 
while the sheet was being printed, thought this too light an expression, and 
changed the word ale into zeal, so that the town became noted for Banbury 



BANBURY AND BROUGHTON. 



'59 



zeal as well as cheese and cakes. The old castle, after standing several des- 
perate sieges, was demolished by the Puritans, and nothing now remains except- 
ing the moat and a small remnant of wall on which a cottage has been built. 
The Banbury cakes are mentioned as early as 1686, and they are still in high 
repute, being sent to all parts of the world. The Banbury cheese of which 
Shakespeare wrote is no longer made. The Banbury cross has been immor- 
talized in nursery-rhymes, but it was taken down by the Puritans. The rhyme 
tells the little folk, 

" Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross, 
To see a fine lady ride on a white horse : 
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, 
She shall have music wherever she goes." 

Diligent research has developed 
some important information about 
this fine lady. It appears that in 
"the Second Edward's reign a knight 
of much renown, yclept Lord Her- 
bert, chanced to live near famous 
Banbury town." Now, this knight 
had one son left, and '■ fearless 
and brave was he ; and it raised 
the pride in the father's heart his 
gallant son to see." The poetic tale 
goes on to relate " that near Lord 
Herbert's ancient hall proud Ban- 
bury Castle stood, within the noble 
walls of which dwelt a maiden young 
and good ;" with much more to the Cromwell's parliament-house, banbury. 

same effect. There is the usual result: the knight loves the lady, has a 
mortal combat with the rival, and nearly loses his life. The fair lady nurses 
him with care, but as he gradually sinks she loses hope and pines away. A 
holy monk lived in the castle, and, noticing her despondency, offers to effect a 
cure. He prescribes : " To-morrow, at the midnight hour, go to the cross alone : 
for Edward's rash and hasty deed perhaps thou mayst atone." She goes there, 
walks around the cross, and Edward is cured. Then all rejoice, and a festival 
is ordered, whereat, 

" Upon a milk-white steed, a lady doth appear : 
By all she's welcomed lustily in one tremendous cheer; 




I 60 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



With riny;s of brilliant lustre her ringers are bedecked, 
And bells upon her palfrey hung to give the whole effect." 

A noble cavalier rode beside her, and the result has been 

" That even in the present time the 1 ustom's not forgot , 
But few there are who know the tale connected with the spot, 
["hough to each baby in the land the nursery-rhymes are told 
About the lady robed in white and Banbur) Cross of old." 

Broughton Castle Is a fine 
castellated mansion a short 
distance south-west of Ban- 
bury. It dates from the 
Elizabethan era, and its 
owner, Viscount Saye and 
Sele, in Charles l.'s reign, 
thinking that his services 
were not sufficiently re- 
warded, took the side of 
Parliament, in which his son 
represented Banbury. When 
the king dissolved Parlia- 
ment, it assembled clandes- 
*•''"■" - .,; , tineK iii broughton Castle. 
: Here the Parliamentary 
leaders met in a room with 
thick walls, so that no sounds 
could escape. Here also 
were raised the earliest 
troops for the Parliament, 
and the " blue-coats " of the 
which was fought only a few 
miles away. Immediately afterwards King Charles besieged Broughton Castle, 
captured and plundered it. This famous old building witnessed in this way 
the earliest steps that led to the English Revolution, and it is kept in quite 
orood preservation. Subsequently, when Oliver Cromwell became the leader 
of the Parliamentary party, he held his Parliament in Banbury at the Roebuck 
Inn, a fine piece of architecture, with a great window that lights up one ot the 
best rooms in England of the earlier days of the Elizabethan era. A low door 
leads from the courtyard to this noted council-chamber where Cromwell held 
his Parliament, and it remains in much the same condition as then. 




BERKS AND WILTS CANAL. 

Sayes were conspicuous at the battle ot Edgehil 



WOODSTOCK AND BLENHEIM. 



161 



Through Oxfordshire is laid out one of those picturesque water-ways of the 
olden time — the Berks and Wilts Canal — which, though almost superseded by 
the omnipresent railway, still exists to furnish pretty scenery with its shady 
towing-paths and rustic swing-bridges. Almost the only traffic that remains 
to this canal, which comes out upon the Thames near Oxford, is carrying 
timber. The growth of English timber is slow, but some is still produced 
by the process of thinning the woods so as to make shapely trees, for otherwise 
the tall trunks would force themselves up almost without spreading branches. 



WOODSTOCK AND BLENHEIM. 
Not far away from Oxford is the manor of Woodstock, where "Fair 
Rosamond's Bower" was built by King Henry 11. This manor was an 

early residence of the kings of England, and 
tenry built a palace there, adding to it a 
vast park. Ol this palace not a sign is 
now to be seen, but two sycamores have 
been planted to mark the spot. The poet 
Chaucer lived at Woodstock, and is sup- 
posed to have taken much of the 
descriptive scenery of his Dream 
from the park. Edward the 
Black Prince, son of Edward 111., 
was born at Woodstock. Henry 
VII. enlarged the palace, and put 
his name upon the principal gate; 
and this gate-house was one of 
the prisons of the princess Eliz- 
abeth, where she was detained 
by her sister, Queen Mary. Eliz- 
abeth is said to have written 
with charcoal on a window-shut- 
ter of her apartment, in 1555, a 
: : a .*M' "*> brief po :m lamenting her impris- 

onment. Her room had an arched 
roof formed of carved Irish oak 
and colored with blue and gold, 

CHAUCER'S HOUSE. arK l j t was | , r , S e 1"\ ( ( 1 lllltil takell 

down by Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. In the Civil War the palace was 
besieged, and after surrender, unlike most similar structures, escaped demo- 

21 




I 62 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



lition. Cromwell allotted it to three persons, two of whom pulled down their 
portions for the sake of the stone. Charles II. appointed the Earl of Rochester 
gentleman of the bedchamber and comptroller of Woodstock Park, and it is 
said that he here scribbled upon the door of the bedchamber of the king the 
well-known mock epitaph : 

" Here lies our sovereign lord, the king, 
Whose word no mm relies on ; 
He never says a foolish thing. 
Nor ever does a wise one." 

In Queen Anne's reign Woodstock was granted to John Churchill, Duke of 
Marlborough, for his eminent military services. The condition of the grant, 

___ which is still scrupulously 

performed, was that on Au- 
gust 2d in every year he and 
his heirs should present to 
the reigning monarch at 
Windsor Castle one stand 
of colors, with three fleurs- 
de-lis painted thereon. The 
estate was named Blen- 
heim, after the little village 
on the Danube which was 
the scene of his greatest 
victory on August 2, 1704. 

Ten years later, the duchess 

In J 

Sarah took down the re- 
mains of the old palace of 
Woodstock, and Scott has 
woven its history into one 
of his later novels. Hard- 
ly any trace remains of old 
Woodstock, and the only 
ruin of interest is a curious 



OLD REMAINS AT WOODSTOCK. 

chimney-shaft of the fourteenth century, which a probably inaccurate tradition 
says was part of the residence of the Black Prince. 

Woodstock Park covers twenty-seven hundred acres, and is nearly twelve 
miles in circuit, abounding with fine trees and having an undulating surface, 
over which roam a larye herd of deer and a number ot kangaroos. When the 




WOODSTOCK AXD BLENHEIM. 



I6' 



manor was granted to the Duke of Marlborough, Parliament voted a sum of 
money to build him a palace "as a monument of his glorious actions." The 
park is entered through a fine Corinthian gateway, built by the duchess Sarah 
in memory of her husband the year after his death. A pretty stream of water, 
the river Glyme, with a lake, winds through a valley in front of the palace, and 
is crossed by a stately stone bridge with a centre arch of one hundred feet 
span. Not far from this bridge was Fair Rosamond's Bower, now marked by a 
wall ; beyond the bridge, standing on the lawn, is the Marlborough Column, a 




BLENHEIM PALACE. FROM T?iE LAKE 



fluted Corinthian pillar one hundred and thirty-four feet high, surmounted by 
the hero in Roman dress and triumphal attitude. This monument to the great 
duke has an account of his victories inscribed on one face of the pedestal, while 
on the others are the acts of Parliament passed in his behalf, and an abstract 
of the entail of his estates and honors upon the descendants of his daughters. 
Parliament voted $2,500,000 to build Blenheim Palace, to which the duke added 
$300,000 from his own resources. The duke died seventeen years after the 
palace was begun, leaving it unfinished. We are told that the trees in the 
park were planted according to the position of the troops at Blenheim. The 



I 64 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



architect of the palace was John Vanbrugh, of whom the satirical epitaph was 

written : 

'• Lie heavy on him, Earth, lor he 

Laid many a heavy load on thee." 

The palace is a massive structure, with spacious portals and lofty towers, and 
its principal front, which faces the north, extends three hundred and forty-eight 
feet from wing to wing, with a portico and flight of steps in the centre. The 
interior is very fine, with magnificently-painted ceilings, tapestries, statuary, 
and a rare collection of pictures. The tapestries represent Blenheim and other 
battles, and there are one hundred and twenty copies of famous masters, made 
by Teniers. A stately statue of Queen Anne stands in the library. There are 
costly collections of enamels, plaques, and miniatures ; on the walls are huge 
paintings by Sir James Thornhill, one representing the great duke, in a blue 
cuirass, kneeling before Britannia, clad in white and holding a lance and wreath ; 
Hercules and Mars stand by, and there are emblem-bearing females and the 
usual paraphernalia. We are told that Thornhill was paid for these at the rate 
of about six dollars per square yard. The duchess Sarah also poses in the col- 
lection as Minerva, wearing a yellow classic breastplate. Among other relics 
kept in the palace are Oliver Cromwell's teapot, another teapot presented by 
the Due de Richelieu to Louis XIV., two bottles that belonged to Queen 
Anne, and some Roman and Grecian pottery. The great hall, which has the 
battle of Blenheim depicted on its ceiling, extends the entire height of the 
building ; the library is one hundred and eighty-three feet long ; and in the 
chapel, beneath a pompous marble monument, rest the great duke and his 
proud duchess Sarah, and their two sons, who died in early years. The pleas- 
ure-gardens extend over three hundred acres along the borders of the lake 
and river, and are very attractive. They contain the Temple of Health erected 
on the recovery of George III. from his illness, an aviary, a cascade elaborately 
constructed of large masses of rock, a fountain copied after one in Rome, and 
a temple of Diana. This great estate was the reward of the soldier whose 
glories were sung by Addison in his poem on the Campaign. Addison then 
lived in a garret up three pair of stairs over a small shop in the Haymarket, 
London, whither went the Chancellor of the Exchequer to get him to write the 
poem, and afterwards gave him a place worth $1000 a year as a reward. The 
Marlboroughs since have been almost too poor to keep up this magnificent 
estate in its proper style, for the family of Spencer-Churchill, which now holds 
the title, unlike most of the other great English houses, has not been blessed with 
a princely private fortune. Not far from Woodstock is Minster Lovel, near the 
village of Whitney. Some fragments of the house remain, and it has its tale 



BICESTER AND EYNSHAM. 



165 



of interest, like all these old houses Lord Lovel was one of the supporters 
of the impostor Simnel against Henry VII., and his rebellion being defeated in 
the decisive battle at Stoke in Nottinghamshire, Lord Lovel escaped by unfre- 
quented roads and arrived home at night. He was so disguised that he was 
only known by a single servant, on whose fidelity he could rely. Before day- 
break he retired to a subterranean recess, of which this servant .retained the 
key, and here he remained several months in safe concealment. The king con- 
fiscated the estate, however, and dispersed the household, so that the voluntary 
prisoner perished from hunger. During the last century, when this stately 
house was pulled down, the vault was discovered, with Lord Lovel seated in a 
chair as he had died. So completely had rubbish excluded the air that his 
dress, which was described as superb, and a prayer-book lying before him on 
the table, were entire, but soon after the admission of the air the body is said 
to have fallen into dust. 



BICESTER AND EYNSHAM. 

A pleasant and old-fashioned town, not far away from Oxford, is Bicester, 
whereof one part is known as the King's End and the other as the Market 
End. Here is the famous Bicester Priory, 
founded in the twelfth century through the 
influence of Thomas a Becket. It was in- 
tended for a prior and eleven canons, in imi- 
tation of Christ and his eleven disciples. The 
priory buildings remained for some time after 
the dissolution of the religious houses, but they 
gradually disappeared, and all that now ex- 
ists is a small farm-house about forty feet 
long which formed part of the boundary-wall 
of the priory, and is supposed to have been a 
lodge for the accommodation of travellers. In 
the garden was a well of never-failing water 
held in high repute by pilgrims, and which now 
supplies a fish-pond. The priory and its estates have passed in regular succession 
through females from its founder, Gilbert Basset, to the Stanleys, and it is now 
one of the possessions of the Earl of Derby. Bicester is an excellent specimen 
of an ancient English market-town, and its curious block of market-buildings, 
occupied by at least twenty-five tenements, stands alone and clear in the market- 
place. There are antique gables, one of the most youthful of which bears the 
date of 1698. On the top is a promenade used by the occupants in summer 




BICESTER PRIORY. 



i 66 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




BICESTER MARKET. 

of tin* thirteenth century, but nothing 
stones that may have belonged to 
it. It was near Eynsham, not very 
long ago, that a strange dark-green 
water-plant first made its appear- 
ance in the Thames, and spread so 
rapidly that it soon quite choked 
the navigation of the river, and 
from there soon extended almost 
all over the kingdom. The mea- 
dows and the rivers became prac- 
tically all alike, a green expanse, in 
which from an eminence it was dif- 
ficult to tell where the water-courses 
lay. This plant was called the"Amer- 
ican weed," the allegation being that 
it came over in a cargo ol timber from 
the St. Lawrence. It caused great 
con-.tci-n.uion. hut just when mat- 
ters looked almost hopeless it grad- 
ually withered ami died, bringing 
the navigation welcome relief. 



weather. In the neigh- 
boring village of Eyn- 
sham is said to be the 
stone coffin that once 
held Fair Rosamond's 
remains, but it has 
another occupant, one 
Alderman Fletcher 
|P ; ; ; «£. having also been 
buried in it in 1826. 
Eynsham once had 
an- abbey, ot which 
still survives the shaft 
of a stone cross 
quaintly carved with 
the figures of saints. 
It is a relic probably 
remains ol the abbey beyond a few 




CROSS AT EYNSHAM 



ABINGDON AXD RADLEY. 



I6 7 



ABINGDON AND RADLEY. 

Crossing over into Berkshire, we find, a short distance south of Oxford, on 
the bank ot the Thames, the ruins of the once extensive and magnificent 
Abingdon Abbey, founded in the seventh century. It was here that Henry, 
the son of William the Conqueror, was educated and gained his appellation ol 
Beauclerc. The gatehouse still 
remains, and is at present de- 
voted to the use of fire-engines, 
but there is not much else re- 
maining ot the abbey save a 
remarkable chimney and fire- 
place and some fragments of 
walls. We are told that the 
Saxons founded this abbey, and 
that the Danes destroyed it, 
while King Alfred deprived the \t 
monks ol their possessions, but 
his grandson /Edred restored ^ 
them. The abbey was then 
built, and became afterwards 
richly endowed. For six cen- 
turies it was one of the great 
religious houses of this part of 
England; and the Benedictines, 
true to their creed, toiled every 
day in the fields as well as pray- 
ed in the church. They began 
the day by religious services ; 
then assembled in the chapter- 
house, where each was allotted his task and tools, and after a brief prayer they 
silently marched out in double file to the fields. From Easter until October 
they were thus occupied from six in the morning until ten o'clock, and some- 
times until noon. Thus they promoted thrift, and as their settlement extended 
it became the centre of a rich agricultural colony, ior they often, as their lands 
expanded, let them out to farmers. A short distance from Abingdon is Radley, 
which was formerly the manor of the abbey, and contains a beautiful little 
church, wealth)' in its stores of rich woodwork and stained glass; it stands in 
the middle of the woods in a charming situation, with picturesque elm trees 




IN I RANCE TO ABINGDON ABBEY. 



[68 



L VGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



overhanging the old Tudor building. Radley Mouse is now a training-school 
for Oxford, and it has a swimming-school attached, in which have been pre- 
pared several of the most famous Oxford oarsmen, swimming being here 
regarded as a necessary preliminary to boating. Near by is Bagley Wood, 
the delicious resort of the Oxonians which Dr. Arnold loved so well. The 
village of Sunningwell, not far from Radley, also has a church, and before its 
altar is the grave of Mean Fell, once its rector, who died of grief on hearing 
of the execution of Charles I. From the tower of this church Friar Bacon, 

the hero of the story ol the brazen 
head, is said to have made astro- 
nomical observations: this renown 
ed friar, Ro^er Bacon, lias come 
down to us as the most learned 
man that Oxford ever produced. 
Bacon's Study was near the Folly 
Bridge, across the Thames on the 
road to Oxford, and it survived 
until i 770, when it was taken down. 
.Anion;; the main legends told ol 
Bacon is one that hi' used such 
skill and magic in building the 
tower containing this study that it 
would have fallen on the head of 
any one more learned than himself 
who mieht pass under it. Hence, 
freshmen on their arrival at Oxford 
are carefully warned not to walk 
too near the Friar's Tower. Bacon 
overcame the greatest obstacles in 
tin' pursuit of knowledge; he spent 
(orrow in fretting hooks ami instru- 




ow 11 money ami all that he could 



ItADLEV 1 lll'Ki 11. 

all his 

ments, and then, renouncing the world, lie became a mendicant monk ol tin- 
order ol St. Francis. His Opus Majus — -to publish which he and his friends 
pawned their goods— was an epitome of all the knowledge of his time. 
Other famous men came also from Abingdon. Edmund Rich, who did so 

much to raise the character of Oxford in its earlier days, was horn there about 
the year [200; his parents were very poor, and his lather sought refuge in 
Eynsham Abbey. We are told that his mother was too poor to furnish young 
Rich "with any other outfit than his horsehair shirt, which she made him prom- 



CAVERSHAM WD READING ABBEY. I >g 



ise to wear every Wednesday, and which probably had been the cause ol his 
father's retirement from their humble abode." Rich went from Eynsham to 
Oxford, and soon became its most conspicuous scholar; then he steadily ad 
vanced until he died the Archbishop of Canterbury. Chid Justice Holt, who 
reformed the legal procedure ol England, was also a native ol Abingdon; he 
admitted prisoners to some rights, protected defendants in suits, and had 
the irons stricken olf the accused when brought into court, for in those days 
of the cruel rule of fudge Jeffreys the defendanl was always considered guilty 
until adjudged innocent. I lolt originated the aphorism that "slaves cannot 
breathe in England:" this was in the famous Somerset case, where a slave was 
sold and the vendor sued for his money, laying the issues at Mary le Bow in 
London, and describing the negro as " there sold and delivered." I he chiel 
justice said that the action was not maintainable, as the status ol slavery did 
not exist in England. If, however, the claim had been laid in Virginia, he said 
he would have been obliged to allow it; so that the decision was practically on 
technical grounds. Lord Campbell sums up Holt's merits as a judge by say 
ing that he was not a statesman like Clarendon, or a philosopher like Bacon, 
or an orator like Mansfield, yet his name is held in equal veneration with 
theirs, and some think him the most venerated judge that ever was chief-jus- 
tice There is a really good story told of him by Lord Campbell. In his 
younger days I lolt was travelling in Oxfordshire, and stopped at an inn where 
the landlady's daughter had an illness inducing fits. She appealed to him, and 
he promised to work a cure; which he did by writing some Greek words on a 
piece of parchment and telling her to lei her daughter wear the charm around 
her neck. Partly from the fact that the malady had spent itself, and possibly 
also from the effect ol her imagination, the girl entirely recovered. Years 
rolled on and he became the lord chief justice, when one day a withered old 
woman was brought before the assizes for being a witch, and it was proven 
that she pretended to cure all manner of cattle diseases, and with a charm that 
she- kept can-fully wrapped in a bundle of rags. The woman told how the 
charm many years before had cured her daughter, and when it was unfolded 
and handed to the judge he remembered the circumstance, recognized his tali 
man, and ordered her release. 

CAVERSHAM AND READING ABBEY. 

As we continue the journey down the Thames the shores on either hand 
seem cultivated like- gardens, with trim hedgerows dividing them, pretty vil- 
lages, cottages gay with flowers and evergreens, spires rising among the- trees; 
and the bewitching scene reminds us of Ralph Waldo Emerson's tribute to tin- 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



English landscape, that "it seems to be finished with the pencil instead oi die 
plough." 1 he surface ol the v river is broken l>v numerous Little "aits" or 
islands. We pass the little old house and the venerable church embosomed 

in the rural beauties 
ol Clifton- 1 lampden. 
We pass Walling- 
ford and ( loring, and 
come to Pangbourne 
and \\ h itch u rch, 
where the little river 
Pang flows in be- 
tween green hills. 
Each village has the 
virtue that 1 )r. [ohn- 

SOn extolled when he 
said that " the finest 
landscape in the 
world is improved 
by a good inn in the 
foreground." Then 
we come to Maple- 
durham and Purley, 
where Warren 1 last 
ings li\ ed, and final 
lv halt at Cavers- 
ham, know n as the 

port ol Reading. 
1 [ere the Thames 

w iclens, and here in 
the olden time was 
the little chapel with 
a statue ol the Vir- 
gin known as the 
" 1 ..uly o\ Cd\ ers 
ham." which was re- 
puted to have wrought many miracles and was the shrine lor troops of pil- 
grims. In Cromwell's A.w the chapel was pulled down, and the statue, which 
was plated over with silver, was boxed up and sent to the Lord Protector in 

London, 1 hey also had here man) famous relics, among them the spear-head 















Mil in Wll ■. \ I i I IFTON H IMP1 M \ 



THE VICAR OF BRAY, 



171 



that pierced the Saviour's side, which had been broughl there by a "one- 
winged angel." The officer who destroyed the chapel, in writing a report of 
the destruction to Cromwell, expressed his regret at having missed among the 
relics "apiece of the holy halter Judas was hanged withal." Lord Cadogan 
subsequently built Caversham Mouse for his residence. Reading, which is the 
county-town of Berkshire, is not far away from Caversham, and is now a thriv- 
ing manufacturing city, its most interesting relic being the hall of the ancient 
Reading Abbey, built seven hundred years ago. Ii was one of the wealthiest 
in the kingdom, and several parliaments sat in the hall. The ruins, still care 
fully preserved, show its extent and fine Norman architecture. 

The Thames Hows on past Sonning, when- the Kennet joins it, a stream 
" for silver eels renowned," as Pope tells us. Then the Lodden (dines in from 
the south, and we enter the fine expanse ol Henley Reach, famous for boat 
racing. It is a beautiful sheet ol water, though the university race is now 
rowed farther down the river and nearer London, at Putney. Our boat now 
drifts with the stream through one ol the most beautiful portions of the famous 
river, past Medmenham Abbey and Cliefden to Maidenhead. Here for about 
ten miles is a succession ol beauties ol scenery over wood and < lill and water 
that for tranquil loveliness cannot be surpassed anywhere. Who has nol heard 
of the charming rocks and hanging woods ol Cliefden, with the Luke ol Wesl 
minster's mansion standing on their pinnacle? 



Till VICAR OF P. KAY. 

We come to Maidenhead and Taplow, with Brunei's masterpiece of bridge- 
building connecting them, its elliptical brick arches being the broadesl ol their 
kind in the kingdom. Below 

this, as beauties decrease, we 
are compensated by scenes 
ol greater historical interest. 
Near Maidenhead is liisham 
Abbey, the most interesting 
house in Berkshire. It was 
originally a convent, and hen' 
lived Sir Thomas Kussel, who 
at one time was the custodian 
of the princess Elizabeth. 
He treated her so well that 
she warmly welcomed him at 
court after becoming queen. 




I1IIAV 1 I II 1<< II. 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



Bisham is a favorite scene for artists to sketch. Bray Church, where officiated 
the famous " Vicar of Bray," Symond Symonds, is below Maidenhead. This 
lively and politic vicar lived in the troubled times of King Henry VIII., Edward 
VI., Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth. Having seen martyrs burnt at Wind- 
sor, but two miles off, he found the fires too hoi tor his tender temper, and there- 
fore changed his religion whenever events changed his sovereign. When taxed 
with being a religious channeling*-, his shrewd answer was, " Not so, for I always 
keep my principle, which is this — to live and to die the Vicar of Bray." The old 
church, nestling amono- the trees, is attractive, and we are told that an ancient 
copy ot Fox's Book of Martyrs, which was chained to the reading-desk in 
Queen Elizabeth's time, is still preserved here for the edification of the faithful. 

ETON COLLEGE. 
Soon the famous Eton College comes into view on the northern bank of the 
river — an institution dear to the memory of many English schoolboys. The 
village consists of a lon«\ narrow street which is extended across an iron 
bridge to Windsor, on the southern bank of the Thames. Henry VI. founded 
the " College of the Blessed Mary of Eton beside Windsor" as early as 1440. 
The older parts of the buildings are of red brick, with stone dressings and 
quaint, highly ornamental chimneys, and they are clustered around two quad- 
rangles. Here are the Lower and Upper Schools and the Long Chamber. 
About thirty-five years ago fine new buildings were erected in similar style to 
the old buildings, which provide a beautiful chapel, schools, and library (though 
books are said to be scarce there), and extensive dormitories. Adjoining them 
to the north-east are the Playing Fields on the broad green meadows along 
the river's edge, with noble elms shading them. In the Upper School of the 
ancient structure high wooden panelling covers the lower part of the walls, 
deeply scarred with the names of generations of Eton boys crowded closely 
together. In earlier times all used to cut their names in the wood, but now 
this sculpturing is only permitted to those who attain a certain position and 
leave without dishonor. Thus the panelling has become a great memorial 
tablet, and above it, upon brackets, are busts of some of the more eminent 
Etonians, including the Duke of Wellington, Pitt, Fox, Hallam, Fielding, and 
Gray. In the library are kept those instruments of chastisement which are 
always considered a part of schoolboy training, though a cupboard hides them 
Irom view — all but the block whereon the victim kneels preliminary to punish- 
ment. More than once have the uproarious boys made successful raids and 
destroyed this block or carried it off as a trophy. But vigorous switching was 
more a habit at Eton in former davs than it is now. Of Head-master Keate, 



ETON COLLEGE. 



1/3 



who was a famous flogger a half century ago, and would frequently practise 
on a score ol boys at one siance, the scholars made a calculation to prove that 
he spent twice as much time in chastisement as in church, and it is recorded 
that he once flogged an entire division of eighty boys without an intermission. 
On another occasion he flogged, by mistake, a party who had been sent him for 
confirmation. Tall stories are also told of Eton flogging and "rug-riding" — 
the latter being a process whereby a heavy boy was dragged on a rug over the 




I. ETON COLLEGE FROM THE PLAYING FIELDS. 



2. THE CRICKET-GKOIMi. 



floors to polish them. Down to 1840 the Eton dinners consisted entirely of 
mutton, with cold mutton served up for supper, but this regulation diet is now 
varied with an occasional service of beef and other courses. Games are no 
inconsiderable part of the English schoolboy's education, and the Duke of 
Wellington said that in the " Playing Eields " of Eton the battle of Waterloo 
was won. These fields, "where all unconscious of their doom the little victims 
play," contain one of the finest cricket-grounds in England. The boys divide 
themselves into "dry bobs" and "wet bobs," the former devoted to cricket and 
the latter to boating. The procession of the boats is the great feature of June 
4th, the "Speech Day." Of late years the Eton volunteer corps has attained 



'74 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



great proficiency, being a battalion of over three hundred of the larger boys. 
This famous college is one of the preparatory schools for the universities. It 
is a world in miniature, where the hoy finds his own level, and is taught lessons 
of endurance, patience, self-control, and independence which stand him in good 
service throughout after-life. 



WINDSOR CASTLE. 

Across the Thames, on the southern hank, the antique and noble towers of 
Windsor Castle now rise high above the horizon. This is the sovereign's rural 
court, and is probably the best known by the world of all the English castles. 
The name is given various derivations: some ascribe it to the river's winding 
course; others to "Wind us over," in allusion to a rope-ferry there in ancient 




WINDSOR, FROM THE HROCAS. 



times ; others to " Wind is sore," as the castle stands high and open to the 
weather. Fro.n the Saxon days Windsor has been a fortress, but the present 
castle owes its beginning to Edward III., who was born at Windsor and built 
its earliest parts, commencing with the great Round Tower in 1315. The ran- 
soms of two captive kings. John of France and David of Scotland, paid for the 



WINDSOR CASTLE. 



•75 



two higher wards. It was at Windsor that King Edward instituted the Order 
of the Garter, which is the highest British order of knighthood. Being im- 
pressed with the charms of Alice, Countess of Salisbury, but she resisting his 
advances, out ot the gallantries of their coquetry came the circumstance of 
the king's picking up her garter dropped at a hall and presenting it to her. 
Some of the nobles smiled at this, which the king noticing, said, " Honi soil 
qui mal y pense " (" Evil he to him who evil thinks"), adding that shortly they 
would see that garter advanced to such high renown as to b ■ happy to wear it. 
Froissart, in giving the legend 
telling ol this institution of the 
Garter, says that it arose out 
of the chivalrous self-denial that 
leads virtue to subdue passion. 
Henry VI. was born at Windsor; 
Edward IV. added St. George's 
Chapel to the castle; Henry VII. 
built the Tomb 1 louse, and I [enry 
VIII. the gateway to the Lower 
Ward; Oueen Elizabeth added 
the gallery of the north terrace ; 
and in Charles II. 's reign the 
fortress, which it had been until 
that time, was converted into a 
sort of French palace. Thus it 
remained until George IV., in 
1824, thoroughly restored it at 
a cost of #7,500,000. The great 
gateways are known as Henry 
VIII. 's, St. George's, and King 
George IV. 's, while within is the 
Norman or Queen Elizabeth's 
Gate. The Round lower or 
Keep was built for the assemblage of a fraternity of knights which King 
Edward intended to model alter King Arthur's " Knights ol the Round fable," 
but the project was abandoned after the institution of the Order of the Garter. 
The Round Tower stands upon an artificial mound, and what was formerly its 
surrounding ditch is now a sunken garden, from its commanding battlements 
twelve counties can be seen, and the Prince of Wales is constable ol this tower, 
as indeed of the whole castle. This fine old keep was the castle-prison from 




h IUND H >''\ 1 1:. WEST END. 

1 By permls t Me ;rs Harper . Bi 



i 70 



ENGL. I X/>, PR Tl 'RESQ I ( \ND I >/■ v RJPTJVE. 



the time of Edward III. to that of Charles II. The poet-king, James I. of ; Scot- 
land, captured when ten years old by Henry [V., was the first prisoner of note. 
Here he fell in love with Jane Beaufort, daughter of the Duke oi Somerset, 
and he tells in a quaint poem the romance which ended in her becoming his 
queen. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, brought to the block by Henry VIII.. 
was also confined there, and he too lamented his captivity in poetry. From the 
top of the keep the dome of St. Paul's in London can be seen. The castle 
was mercilessly plundered in the Civil Wars, till Cromwell interfered for its 
protection. In its present condition the cast! : has three grand divisions in the 
palatial parts — the state apartments, looking north; the queen's private apart- 





|Iff!^ \. l "T- m 




QUEENS ROOMS in SOUTH EAS1 TOWER, WINDSOR CASTL1 
i U\ permission of M ! I i fc Brol 

ments, looking east: and the visitors' apartments, looking south. 1 he south 
and east sides ol the quadrangle contain over three hundred and seventy 
rooms. Southward of the castle is the Windsor Great Park, to which the 
"Long Walk," said to be the finest avenue of the kind in Europe, runs in a 
straight line for three miles from the principal entrance ol the castle to the top 
of a commanding eminence in the park called Snow Hill. Double rows ot 
statelv elms border the "Long Walk" on either hand, and it terminates at 
the fine bronze equestrian statue of George III., standing on the highest part 
of Snow I [ill. 

St. George's Chapel, a beautiful structure ol the Perpendicular Gothic, was 
begfun four hundred years ago, and contains the tomb ol Edward IV., who built 



SOME RIVER-SCENES. 



1/7 



it. In [789, more than three hundred 

years alter his interment, the leaden 
coffin ot the king was found in laying 
a new pavement. The skeleton is said 
to have been seven feet long, and 
Horace Walpole got a lock of the 
king's hair. Here also lie Henry 
VI.! Henry VIII., and Charles I. The 
latter's coffin was opened in [813, 
and the king's remains were found 
in lair preservation. The close com- 
panionship of Henry VI II. and Charles 
in death is thus described by Byron: 

" Famed for contemptuous breai li <>\ ;a< red ties, 
By headless Charles sec heartless Henry lies." 

The tradition of " I lerne the I 1 1 1 11 - 
ter," which Shakespeare gives in the 
Merry Wwcs of Windsor, is said to 
be founded on the fact that I lerne, 
a keeper of Windsor Forest, having 
committed some offence, hanged him- 
self upon an oak tree. I lis ghost af- 
terwards was to be seen, with horns 
on its head, walking round about 
this oak in the neighborhood of the 
castle. 




INTERIOR OF ST. GEORGES CHAPEL. 

By pern of Mi i Harper < Brother*. 



SOM E KI v i:k SCKN es. 
Just below Windsor the Thames passes between Runnimede, the " Meadow 
of Council," where the barons encamped, and Magna Charta Island, where 
King John signed the great charter of English liberty. The river sweeps in 
a tranquil bend around the wooded isle, where a pretty little cottage has been 
built which is said to contain the very stone whereon the charter was signed. 

The river Coin falls into the Thames, and " London Stone" marks the entrance 
to Middlesex and the domain of the metropolis. We pass Staines and Chert- 
sey, where the poet Cowley lived, and then on the righl hand the river Wey 
comes in at Weymouth. Many villages are passed, and at a bend in the 

Thames we come to the place where Caesar with his legions forded the river 
at Cowey Stakes, defeated Cassivelaunus, and conquered Britain. In his Lom- 

2.1 



i 7 3 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



Sr*g© 



mentaries Julius Caesar writes that he led his army to the Thames, which could 
be crossed on foot at one place only, and there with difficulty. On arriving, 
he perceived great forces of the enemy drawn up on the opposite bank, which 
was fortified by sharp stakes set along the margin, a similar stockade being 

fixed in the bed of the river 



and covered by the stream. 
These facts being ascertained 
from prisoners and deserters, 
Caesar sent the cavalry in 
front and ordered the legions 
to follow immediately. The 
soldiers advanced with such 
impetuosity, although up to 
their necks in the water, that 
the Britons could not with- 
stand the onset and fled. 
A couple of miles below, at 
Hampton, Garrick lived in a 
mansion fronted by a rotunda 
with a Grecian portico. We 
pass Hampton Court and 




&m 



MAGNA CHARTA ISLAND. 

Bushey Park, which revive memories of Wolsey, Cromwell, and William III., 
and then on the opposite bank see the two charming Dittons — " Thames " and 
"Long" Ditton— of which Theodore Hook has written: 

"When sultry suns and dusty streets proclaim town's 'winter season.' 
And rural scenes and cool retreats sound something like high treason, 
I steal away to shades serene which yet no bard has hit on, 
And change the bustling, heartless scene for quietude and Ditton. 

"Here, in a placid waking dream, I'm free from worldly troubles. 
Calm as the rippling silver stream that in the sunshine bubbles ; 
And when sweet Eden's blissful bowers some abler bard has writ on. 
Despairing to transcend his powers, I'll ditto say for Ditton.'' 

Then we pass Kingston, where several Saxon kings were crowned, and the 
coronation-stone, marked with their names, it is said, still remains in the market- 
place. Teddington Lock is the last upon the Thames, and a mile below is 
Eel-Pie Island, lying off Twickenham, renowned for the romance that surrounds 
its ancient ferry. Near here lived the eccentric Horace Walpole, at Strawberry 
Hill, while in Twickenham Church is the monument to the poet Pope, which 
states in its inscription that he would not be buried in Westminster Abbey. 



LONDON. 1 79 



Pope's villa no longer exists, and only a relic of his famous grotto remains. 
The widening Thames, properly named the Broadwater, now sweeps on to 
Richmond, and if that far-famed hill is climbed, it discloses one of the finest 
river-views in the world. 

LONDON. 

Here ends the romantic portion of the Thames. The beauty of Nature is 
no longer present, being overtopped by the stir and roar of the great Babel, 
for the metropolis has reached out and swallowed up the suburban villages, 
although some of the picturesque scenes remain. Many bridges span the 
river, which on either hand gradually transforms its garden-bordered banks 
into the city buildings, and the Thames itself bears on its bosom the valuable 
commerce that has chiefly made the great capital. When King James I. threat- 
ened recalcitrant London with the removal of his court to Oxford, the lord 
mayor sturdily yet sarcastically replied, " May it please Your Majesty, of your 
grace, not to take away the Thames too?" This river, so beautiful in its upper 
loveliness, stands alone in the far-reaching influence of the commerce that its 
lower waters bear. It has borne us from the Cotswolds to London ; while to 
properly describe the great city would take volumes in itself. Without attempt- 
ing such a task, we will only give a brief summary of some of the more strik- 
ing objects of interest that the great British metropolis presents. 

The origin of the vast city whose population now approximates four mil- 
lions is obscure. It was a British settlement before the Romans came to Eng- 
land, and its name of Llyn Dyn, the "City of the Lake," was transformed by 
the conquerors into Londinium. When Caesar crossed the Thames he thought 
the settlement of too little importance for mention, and it does not seem to 
have been occupied as a Roman station until a century afterwards, and was 
not walled round until a. d. 306. The old wall was about three miles in cir- 
cumference, beginning near the present site of the Tower, and some slight 
traces of it remain. The " London Stone " on Cannon Street was the central 
stone or milliarium from which distances were measured and the great Roman 
highways started. A worn fragment of this stone, protected by iron bars, now 
stands against the wall of St. Swithin's Church. When Jack Cade entered 
London, Shakespeare tells us, he struck his sword on this stone and exclaimed, 
" Now is Mortimer lord of this city." Wren caused it to be encased, for pro- 
tection, with a new stone hollowed for the purpose ; it now stands very near 
its original position. London in the sixth century became the capital of the 
Saxon kingdom of Essex, and in the ninth century the Danes destroyed it. 
King Alfred a few years afterwards rebuilt London, but it stood barely seven 



i So 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



years when it was 
burned. Finally, it 
was again rebuilt, 
and again captured 
by the Danes, Ca- 
nute setting himsell 
up as king there. 
Some relics of these 
1 )anes remain. St. 
( )lat" was their saint. 
and Tooley Street is 
but a corruption ot 
his name. They had 
a church and burial- 
place where now 
St. Clement Danes 
stands awry on the 
Strand — a church 
that is of interest 
not only on its own 
account, but for the 
venerable antiquity 
it represents. The 
Saxons drove out 
the I )anes, and the 
Normans in turn 
conquered the Sax- 
ons, the Tower ot 
London coming 
down to us as a 
relic of William the 
Conqueror, who 
granted the city the 
charter which is still 
extant. Henry I. 
gave it a new char- 
ter, which is said to 
have been the mod- 
el for Martia Char- 




IHI MUNIMENT. 



la. In the twelfth 
century London 
attained the digni- 
ty of having a lord 
mayor. It sided 
with the House of 
York in the Wars 
of the Roses, and 
in Llizabeth's reign 
had about one hun- 
dred and fifty thou- 
sand pop u la tion, 
being then about 
two miles south ot 
Westminster, with 
fields between, and 
having the Tower 
standingapartfrom 
the city farther 
down the Thames. 
The plague devas- 
tated it in i665_ 
earning off sixty 
thousand persons, 
and next year tin- 
Great Fire occur- 
red, which destroy- 
ed five-sixths ot the 
city within the walls, 
and burned during 
four days. This fire 
began at Pudding 
Lane, Monument 
Yard, and ended 
at Pie Corner, Gilt- 
spur Street. To 
commemorate the 
calamity the Mon- 
ument was erected 



ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. l8l 



on Fish Street Hill, on the site of St. Margaret's Church, which was destroyed. 
It is a Huted Doric column of Portland stone, erected by Wren at a cost of 
$70,000, and is two hundred and two feet high. The inscriptions on the ped- 
estal record the destruction and restoration of the city ; and down to the year 
1831 there was also an inscription untruthfully attributing the fire to "the 
treachery and malice of the popish faction ;" this has been effaced, and to it 
Pope's couplet alluded : 

" Where London's column, pointing to the skies, 
Like a tall bully lifts its head and lies." 

A vase of flames forty-two feet high, made of gilt bronze, crowns the apex, up 
to which leads a winding staircase of three hundred and forty-five steps. The 
structure has often been compared to a lighted candle, and the balcony at the 
top, having been selected as a favorite place for suicides to jump from, is now 
encaged with iron-work to prevent this. 

London was rebuilt in four years after the Great Fire, and the first stone 
of the new St. Paul's was laid in 1675, when the city had, with the outlying 
parishes, a half million population. Its growth was slow until after the Amer- 
ican Revolution, and it began the present century with about eight hundred 
thousand people. The past seventy years have witnessed giant strides, and 
it has made astonishing progress in the elegance of its parks and new streets 
and the growth of adornments and improvements of all kinds. London has 
become, in fact, a world within itself. 

ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. 

Among a multitude of famous objects in London, three stand out boldly 
prominent — St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and the Tower. St. 
Paul's, the cathedral church of the bishops of London, is the finest building 
in the Italian style in Great Britain ; but, unfortunately, in consequence of the 
nearness of the surrounding houses, no complete general view is attainable. 
The first church was built there by King Ethelbert in 610; it was destroyed by 
fire in the eleventh century, and then old St. Paul's was built, suffering repeat- 
edly from fire and lightning, and being finally destroyed by the Great Fire of 
1666. It was a large church, with a spire rising five hundred and twenty feet. 
The money-lenders and small dealers plied their vocations in its middle aisle, 
known as Paul's Walk, while tradespeople took possession of the vaults and 
cloisters, a baker made a hole in a buttress for his bakeoven, and several 
buildings were planted against the outer walls, one being used as a theatre. 
The ruins were not disturbed for eight years after the fire, when Wren began 



182 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



rebuilding, the cathedral being finished in thirty-five years. The architect, 
bishop, and master-mason who laid the corner-stone were all living at the 
completion — a singular circumstance. Wren got $1000 a year salary, and for 
this, said the Duchess of Marlborough, he was content to be dragged up to 
the top in a basket three or four times a week. The building cost $3,740,000, 
chiefly raised by subscription. It is the fifth of the churches of Christendom 




ST. PAUL S CATHEDRAL. 



in size, being excelled by St. Peter's and the cathedrals at Florence, Amiens, 
and Milan. In ground plan it is a Latin cross five hundred feet long, with a 
transept of two hundred and fifty feet in length; the nave and choir are one 
hundred and twenty-five feet wide and the sides one hundred feet high. The 
majestic dome, which is the glory of the cathedral, rises three hundred and 
sixty-five feet, and the surmounting lantern carries a gilt copper ball and cross. 
The grand front towards the west, facing Ludgate Hill, is approached by a 



57: PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. 



re- 



double flight of steps from an area which 
contains a statue of Queen Anne. The 
portico is in two divisions, with Corinthian 
columns supporting the pediment, which 
bears a bas-relief of the conversion of St. 
Paul, and has a statue of St. Paul at the 
apex, with statues of St. Peter at the sides. 
Bell-towers rise from each side of the por- 
tico to a height of two hundred and twenty 
feet, surmounted by domes. The large bell, 
" Great Paul," which has just been placed in 
the tower, is the heaviest in England, weigh- 
ing nearly seventeen tons. Within the 
cathedral the cupola has a diameter of one 
hundred and ei"bt feet, and rises two hun- 
dred and twenty-eight feet above the pave- 
ment; around it runs the famous Whisper- 
ing Gallery. Beneath the centre of the 
pavement lie the remains of Lord Nelson in the crypt, for St. Paul's has been 
made the mausoleum of British heroes on sea and land. Here, among others, 




ST. PAUL S 



ATHEDRAL, SOUTH SIDE. 




THE CHOIR— ST. PAULS CATHEDRAL. 



are monuments to Napier, Ponsonby, Corn- 
wallis, Nelson, Howe, Collingwood, Paken- 
ham, Sir John Moore, Abercrombie, Rod- 
ney, St. Vincent, and also a noble porphy- 
ry mausoleum for the Duke of Wellington. 
Some of the heroes of peace also have 
monuments in St. Paul's, among them Dr. 
|ohnson, Howard the philanthropist, Sir 
Astley Cooper the surgeon, Bishop Mid- 
dleton, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Turner, Ren- 
nie the engineer, and also Wren. The 
memory of the great architect is marked 
by a marble slab, with the inscription, 
" Reader, do you ask his monument? Look 
around." 

The outside elevation of the cathedral is 
of two orders of architecture — the lower, 
Corinthian, having windows with semicir- 
cular headings, while the upper, Composite, 



1 84 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




WELLINGTON MONUMENT, ST. PAULS CATHEDRAL, LONDON. 



has niches corre- 
sponding to the win- 
dows below. The 
entablature of each 
story is supported by 
coupled pilasters, 
while the north and 
south walls are sur- 
mounted by balus- 
trades. Each arm of 
the transept is enter- 
ed by an external 
semicircular portico, 
reached by a lofty 
staircase. Above the 
dome is the Golden 
Gallery,whence there 
is a grand view 
around London, if the 
atmosphere permits, 
which it seldom does. 
Above the lantern is 
the ball, weighing 
fifty- six hundred 
pounds; above this 
the cross, weighing 
thirty-three hundred 
and sixty pounds. 



W E STMINSTER ABB E Y . 
This is the most renowned church in England, for in it her sovereigns have 
been crowned, and many of them buried, from the days of Harold to Victoria, 
and it contains the graves of her greatest men in statesmanship, literature, 
science, and art. The abbey is the collegiate church of St. Peter's, West- 
minster, and stands not far away from the Thames, near Westminster Hall 
and the Parliament Houses. Twelve hundred years ago its site was an island 
in the Thames known as Thorney Island, and a church was commenced there 
by Sebert, king of Essex, but was not completed until three centuries after- 
wards, in the reign of King Edgar, when it was named the " minster west of 



1 1 Vi.v i ; i //. xsi /■: A' . / b B E ) : 



185 



St. Paul's," or Westminster. The Danes destroyed it, and Edward the Confes- 
sor rebuilt it in the eleventh century. Portions of this church remain, but the 
present abbey was begun by Henry 111. nearly seven hundred years ago, and 
it was not completed until Edward III.'s time. Henry VII. removed the Lady 
Chapel, and built the rich chapel at the east end which is named after him. 
Wren ultimately made radical changes in it, and in 1714, after many changes, 
the abbey finally assumed its present form and appearance. It has had a great 




WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 



history, the coronations alone that it has witnessed being marked events. They 
usually were followed by banquets in Westminster Hall, but over £1,300,000 
having been wasted on the display and banquet for George IV., they were dis- 
continued atterwanis. At < |ueen \ ictoria's coronation the crown was imposed 
in front of the altar before St. Edward's Chapel, the entire nave, choir, and 
transepts being tilled by spectators, and the queen afterwards sitting upon a 
j 1 



i86 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



chair which, with the raised platform bearing it, was covered with a cloth of 
gold. Here she received the homage of her officers and the nobility. The 
ancient coronation-chair, which is probably the greatest curiosity in the abbey, 
is a most unpretentious and uncomfortable-looking old high-backed chair with 
a hard wooden seat. Every sovereign of England has been crowned in it since 
Edward I. There is a similar chair alongside it, the duplicate having been 
made for the coronation of William and Mary, when two chairs were necessary, 
as both king and queen were crowned and vested with equal authority. Under- 
neath the seat of the coronation-chair is fastened the celebrated Stone of 
Scone, a dark-looking, old, rough, and worn-edged rock about two feet square 
and six inches thick. All sorts of legends are told of it, and it is said to have 
been a piece of Jacob's Pillar. Edward I. brought it irom Scotland, where 
many generations had done it reverence, and the old chair was made to con- 
tain it in 1297. These priceless accessories of the coronation ceremony, which 
will some day do service for the Prince of Wales, are kept alongside the tomb 
of Edward the Confessor, which for centuries has been the shrine of pilgrims, 
and they are guarded by the graves of scores of England's kings and queens 
and princes. 

The abbey's ground-plan has the form of a Latin cross, which is apsidal, having 
radiating chapels. Henry VII. 's Chapel prolongs the building eastward from 

the transept almost as much as the nave 
extends westward. Cloisters adjoin the 
nave, and the western towers, built by 
Wren, rise two hundred and twenty-five 
feet, with a grand window beneath them. 
The church is five hundred and thirty feet 
long. The nave is one hundred and sixty- 
six feet long and one hundred and two feet 
high ; the choir, one hundred and fifty-five 
long; the transept, two hundred and three 
feet long, and on the south arm one hun- 
dred and sixty-five feet high. A great rose- 
window, thirty feet in diameter, is in the 
north end of the transept, with a fine 
portico, beneath which is the beautiful 
gateway of the abbey. In the interior the 
height of the roof is remarkable, and also 
the vast number of monuments, there being 
hundreds of them. Magnificent woodwork 




CLOISTERS OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY 



WESTMINSTER ABBE Y. 



187 



in carving and tracery adorns the choir, and its mosaic pavement comes down 
to us from the thirteenth century, the stones and workmen to construct it 




WESTMINSTER ABBEY, INTERIOR OF THE CHOIR. 



having been brought from Rome. The fine stained-glass windows are 
chiefly modern. But the grand contemplation in Westminster Abbey is the 
graves of the famous dead that have been gathering there for nearly eight 



[S8 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



centuries. No temple in the world can present anything' like it. Words- 
worth has written : 

" He mine in hours of fear 

Or grovelling thought to find a refuge here, 
Or through the aisles "I Westminster to roam, 
Where bubbles burst, and folly's dancing foam 
Melts if it cross the threshold— where the wreath 
Of awestruck wisdom droops." 




KING HENRY VII. S CHAPEL. 



Of the nine chapels surrounding the east end of the abbey, the most inter- 
esting are those of Edward the Confessor, beyond the altar, and of Henry \ II., 
at the extreme eastern end. The shrine of King Edward above referred to 
occupies the centre of his chapel, and was formerly richly inlaid with mosaics 
and precious stones, which, however, have been carried oft. Henry \ II.'s 
Chapel is a tine specimen of the architecture of his time, and the monuments 



THE TOWER OF LONDON. I 89 

of Queens Elizabeth and Mary of Scotland are in the north and south aisles. 
In the south transept is the Poets' Corner, with monuments to all the great 
poets, and here, as well as in nave and choir and the north transept, are monu- 
ments of hundreds of illustrious Englishmen. In making these burials there 
is a sort of method observed. Chaucer's interment in the Poets' Corner in 
1400 led the south transept to be devoted to literary men. The north transept 
is devoted to statesmen, the first distinguished burial there being the elder Pitt 
in 1778. The organ is on the north side of the nave, and here the eminent 
musicians repose. In the side chapels the chief nobles are buried, and in the 
chancel and its adjoining chapels the sovereigns. Isaac Newton in 1727 was 
the first scientist buried in the nave, and that part has since been devoted to 
scientific men and philanthropists. Probably the finest tomb in the abbey is 
that of the elder Pitt, which bears the inscription, " Erected by the King and 
Parliament as a testimony to the virtues and ability of William Pitt, Earl of 
Chatham, during whose administration, in the reigns of George II. and George 
III., Divine Providence exalted Great Britain to a height of prosperity and 
glory unknown to any former age." One of the finest of the stained-glass 
windows in the nave is the double memorial window in memory of the poets 
Herbert and Cowper, erected by an American, George W. Childs. George 
III. and the British sovereigns since his reiyn have their tombs at Windsor, 
preferring that noble castle for their last resting-place. 

Upon the east side of the abbey is St. Margaret's, the special church of the 
House of Commons. Its east window contains the celebrated stained-glass 
representation of the Crucifixion, painted in Holland, which General Monk 
buried to keep the Puritans from destroying. Sir Walter Raleigh is entombed 
here, and an American subscription has placed a stained-glass window in the 
church to his memory, inscribed with these lines by James Russell Powell : 

"The New World's sons, from England's breasts we drew 
Such milk as bids remember whence we came. 
Proud of her past, wherefrom our present grew, 
This window we inscribe with Raleigh's name." 

THE TOWER OF LONDON. 
On the northern bank of the Thames, standing in a somewhat elevated posi- 
tion a short distance east of the ancient city-walls, is the collection of buildings 
known as the Tower. The enclosure covers about twelve acres, encircled by 
a moat now drained, and a battlemented wall from which towers rise at 
intervals. Within is another line of walls with towers, called the Inner Ballium, 
having various buildings interspersed. In the enclosed space, rising high above 



I 93 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



all its surroundings, is the great square White Tower, which was the keep of 
the old fortress. Tradition assigns a very early date to this stronghold, but 
the written records do not go back earlier than William the Conqueror, who 
built the White Tower about 107S. It was enlarged and strengthened by sub- 
sequent kings, and Stephen kept his court there in the twelfth century. The 
moat was made about 1190. Edward II. 's daughter was born there, and was 
known as Joan of the Tower. Edward III. imprisoned Kings David of Scot- 
land and John of Erance there. Richard 11. in Wat Tyler's rebellion took 
refuge in the Tower with his court and nobles, numbering six hundred per- 
sons, and in 1399 was imprisoned there and deposed. Edward IV. kept a 
splendid court in the Tower, and Henry VI., after being twice a prisoner there, 
died in the Tower in 1471. There also was the Duke of Clarence drowned in 
a butt of Malmsey wine, and the two youthful princes, Edward V. and his 
brother, were murdered at the instance of Richard III. Henry VII. made the 
Tower often his residence. Henry VIII. received there in state all his wives 
before their marriages, and two of them, Anne Boleyn and Catharine Howard, 
were beheaded there. Here the Protector Somerset, and afterwards Lady 
Jane Grey, were beheaded. The princess Elizabeth was imprisoned in the 
Tower, and James I. was the last English sovereign who lived there. The 
palace, having become ruinous, was ultimately taken down. The Tower during 
the eight hundred years it has existed has contained a legion of famous pris- 
oners, and within its precincts Chaucer, who held an office there in Richard 
II. 's reign, composed his poem The Testament oj Love, and Sir Walter Raleigh 
wrote his History of the World. 

The " Yeomen of the Guard," a corps of forty-eight warders, who are meri- 
torious soldiers, dressed in the uniform of Henry VIII.'s reign on state occa- 
sions, and at other times wearing black velvet hats and dark-blue tunics, have 
charge of the exhibition of the Tower. The entrance is in a small building 
on the western side, where years ago the lions were kept, though they have 
since been all sent to the London Zoological Garden. From this orierinated 
the phrase "going to see the lions." At the centre of the river-front is the 
" Traitor's Gate," through which persons charged with high treason were for- 
merly taken into the Tower. It is a square building erected over the moat, 
ami now contains a steam pumping-engine. Opposite it is the Bloody Tower, 
where the young princes were smothered and where Raleigh was confined. 
Adjoining is the Wakefield 'Tower, with walls thirteen feet thick. Passing- 
through the Bloody Tower gateway to the interior enclosure, a large number 
of curious guns are seen, ami the Horse Armory at the base of the White 
Tower is filled with specimens of ancient armor artistically arranged. In this 




Bow VEf^ T OW f » 



1 92 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



collection the systems of armor can be traced from the time of Edward I. to 
that of James II., and there are suits that were worn by several famous kings 
and warriors. Above, in Queen Elizabeth's Armory, is more armor, and also 
trophies of Waterloo and other battles, and a collection of every kind of 
weapon in the Tower. There are also specimens of instruments of torture 
and many other curiosities on exhibition. 

The White Tower, which has walls fourteen feet thick in some parts, covers 
a space one hundred and sixteen by ninety-six feet, and is ninety-two feet high, 
with turrets at the angles. Each floor is divided into three rooms, with stone 
partitions seven feet thick. On the second floor is St. John's Chapel, and on the' 
third the council-chamber of the early kings, with a dark, massive timber roof; 
in this chamber Richard II. resigned his crown ; it is now filled with a vast 
collection of arms. The Salt Tower, which is at an angle of the enclosure, was 
formerly a prison ; ami in another part of the grounds is the Jewel House, 
where the crown jewels are kept ; they are in a glass case, protected by an 
iron cage, and the house was built for them in 1842. Queen Victoria's state 
crown, made in 1838, alter her coronation, is the chief. It consists of diamonds, 
pearls, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds set in silver and gold, and has a crim- 
son velvet cap with carmine border, lined with white silk. It contains the 
famous ruby given to Edward the Black Prince by the King of Castile, and 
which is surrounded by diamonds forming a Maltese cross. The jewels in this 
crown are one large ruby, one large sapphire, sixteen other sapphires, eleven 
emeralds, four rubies, one thousand three hundred and sixty-three brilliant dia- 
monds, one thousand two hundred and seventy-three rose diamonds, one hun- 
dred and lorty-seven table diamonds, and two hundred and seventy-seven 
pearls. Among the other crowns is St. Edward's crown, of gold embellished 
with diamonds, used .it all coronations, when it is placed upon the sovereign's 
lnad by tin' Archbishop of Canterbury. This crown was stolen from the 
Tower by Blood in 1761. There are also the Prince of Wales' crown, the 
queen's crown, the queen's diadem, St. Edward's Staff, four feet seven inches 
long, made of beaten gold and surmounted by an orb said to contain part of 
the true cross, and carried before the sovereign at coronation; the royal scep- 
tre (surmounted by a cross), which the archbishop places in the sovereign's 
right hand at coronation ; the rod of equity (surmounted by a dove), which he 
places in the left hand; several other sceptres; the pointless sword of Mercy, 
the swords of Justice, and the sacred vessels used at coronation. Here is also 
the famous Koh-i-noor diamond, the " Mountain of Light," which was taken at 
Lahore in India. The ancient Martin or Jewel bower, where Anne Boleyn was 
imprisoned, is near by ; the barracks are on the north side of the Tower, and 



THE TOWER OE LONDON. 



'93 



behind them are the Brick and Bowyer Towers, in the former of which Lady 
Jane Grey was imprisoned, and in the latter the Duke of Clarence was drown- 
ed ; but only the basements of the old towers remain. The Tower Chapel, or 
church of St. Peter's, was used for the cemetery of the distinguished prisoners 
who were beheaded there, and in its little graveyard lie scores of headless 
corpses, as well as the remains of several constables of the Tower. In front 
of it was the place of execution, marked by an oval of dark stones. The 
Beauchamp Tower stands at the middle of the west side of the fortress, built 
in the thirteenth century and used as a prison; there are numerous inscrip- 
tions and devices on the walls made by the prisoners. Here Lady Jane Grey's 
husband carved in antique letters " lane." In the Bell Tower, at the south-western 




THE CHURCH OF ST. PETER, ON TOWER GREEN. 

angle, the princess Elizabeth was confined, and in the present century it was the 
prison of Sir Francis Burdett, committed for commenting in print on the pro- 
ceedings of the House of Commons. The Tower Subway is a tunnel con- 
structed recently under the Thames from Tower Hill to Tooley Street for 
passenger traffic. The Duke of Wellington was constable of the Tower at 
one time, and its barracks are sometimes occupied by as many as eight thou- 
sand troops. This ancient fortress always has a profound interest for visitors, 
and no part of it more than the Water-Gate, leading from the Thames, the 
noted " Traitor's Gate," through which have gone so many victims of despotism 
and tyranny — heroes who have passed 

"On through that gate, through which before 
Went Sydney, Russell, Raleigh, Cranmer, More." 
25 



i 9 4 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



THE LOLLARDS AND LAMBETH. 



The Archbishop of Canterbury, the primate of England, who crowns the 
sovereigns, has his palace at Lambeth, on the south side of the Thames, 
opposite Westminster, and its most noted portion is the Lollards' Tower. 

The Lollards, named 



from their low tone 
of singing- at inter- 
ments, were a nu- 
merous sect exert- 
ing- great in- 
fluence in 
the four 
teenth cen 
tury. The 
Church per- 
s e c u t e d 
i them, and 




■ - ' ^M 

THE LOLLARDS' TOWER, LAMBETH PALACE. , . :T 

many suffered death, and their prison was 
the Lollards' Tower, built in 1435, adjoin- 
ing the archiepiscopal palace. This prison 
is reached by a narrow stairway, and at the 
entrance is a small doorway barely sufficient for one person to pass at a time. 
The palace itself was built in the days of the Tudors, and the gatehouse of 
red brick in 1499. The chapel is Early English, its oldest portion built in the 
thirteenth century. All the Archbishops of Canterbury since that time have 
been consecrated there. There is a great hall and library, and the history of 



BOW CHURCH AND ST. BRIDES. 



!95 



this famous religious palace is most in- 
teresting. At the red brick gatehouse 
the dole is distributed by the archbishop, 
as from time immemorial, to the indigent 
parishioners. Thirty poor widows on three 
days of the week each get a loaf, meat, and 
two and a half pence, while soup is also 
given them and to other poor persons. 
The archbishops maintain this charity care- 
fully, and their office is the head of the 
Anglican Church. 

Bow Church, or St. Mary le- Bow, on 



M 




I 







ST. BRIDE S, FLEET STREET. 



ST. MARY-LE-BOW. 

Cheapside, is one of the best known 
churches of London. It is surmounted 
by one of the most admired of Wren's 
spires, which is two hundred and twenty- 
five feet high. There is a dragon upon 
the spire nearly nine feet long. It is the 
sure criterion of a London Cockney to 
have been born within sound of " Bow 



196 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



Bells." A church stood here in very early times, said to have been built upon 
arches, from which is derived the name of the Ecclesiastical Court of Arches, 
the supreme court of the province of Canterbury, a tribunal first held in 
Bow Church. Another of Wren's noted churches is St." Bride's, on Fleet 
Street, remarkable for its beautiful steeple, originally two hundred and thirty- 
four feet high. It has been much damaged by lightning. The east window 
of St. Bride's is a copy on stained glass of Rubens' painting of "The Descent 
from the Cross." This church contains several famous tombs. 



WHIT KH ALL. 



We will now take a brief view of Westminster, the region of palaces, and 
first of all pause at the most ancient and famous of them, Whitehall, of which 
only the Banqueting House remains. This was originally the residence of 




THE CHAPEL ROYAL. WHITEHALL. 



the Archbishops of York, and here lived Cardinal Wolsey in great splendor 
until his downfall, when Henry VIII. took Whitehall for his palace and made 
large additions to the buildings, entering it as a residence with his queen, 
Anne Boleyn, The sovereigns of England lived in Whitehall for nearly two 
centuries, and in Charles I.'s reign it contained the finest picture-gallery in the 
kingdom. This unhappy king was beheaded in front of the Banqueting 



WHITEHALL. 



197 



House, being led to the scaffold out of one of the windows. James II. left 
Whitehall when he abandoned the kingdom, and accidental fires in the closing 
years of the seventeenth century consumed the greater part of the buildings. 
The Banqueting 



House, which is 
one hundred and 
eleven teet long 
and a fine struc- 
ture of Portland 
stone, is all that 
remains, and it is 
now used as a 
royal chapel, 
where one of the 
queen's chaplains 
preaches every 
Sunday. Rubens' 
paintings com- 
memorating King 
James I. are still 
on the ceiling. 

In the district of 
Whitehall is also 
the army head- 
quarters and office 
of the commander- 
in-chief, the Duke 
of Cambridge — 
now known popu- 
larly as the" Horse 
Guards," because 
in front of it two 
mounted horse- 




IXTERIOR OF THE CHAPEL ROYAL (BANQUETING-HALL), WHITEHALL. 

men stand on duty all day in horse-boxes on either side of the entrance. The 
clock surmounting the building in its central tower is said to be the standard 
timekeeper of London lor the West End. A carriage-way leads through the 
centre of the building to St. James Park, a route which only the royal family 
are permitted to use. Not far away are the other government offices — the 
Admiralty Building and also " Downing Street," where resides the premier and 



198 



/ VGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



when: the secretaries of state 
have their offices and the Cab- 
inet meets. Here are the Treas- 
ury Building and the Foreign 

Office, and from this spot Eng- 
land may be said to be ruled. In 
this neighborhood also is Scot 
land Yard, the head 




IHK HORSE GUARDS, KKOM 
THE PARADE GROUND. 

quarters ol the London Metropolitan Po- 
lice, where the chief commissioner sits and 
where lost articles are restored to their 

owners when found in cabs or omnibuses — an important branch of police duty. 

It obtained its name from b-.-ino the residence ol the Scottish kings when they 

visited London. 

ST. JAMES PA LACK. 

When the palace in Whitehall was destroyed the sovereigns made their resi- 
dence chiefly at St. lames Palace, which stands on the north side of St. (ames 
Park. This building is more remarkable for its historical associations than for 
its architecture. It was originally a leper's hospital, but Henry VIII., obtaining 
possession ol it, pulled down the old buildings and laid out an extensive park, 
using it as a semi-rural residence called the Manor House. Its gatehouse and 
turrets were built for him from plans by Holbein. Oueen Mary died in it, and 
in its chapel Charles I. attended service on the morning of his execution, and 
we are told that he walked from the palace through the park, guarded by a 
regiment of troops, to Whitehall to be beheaded. Here lived General Monk 
when he planned the Restoration, and William 111. first received the allegiance 
of the English nobles here in [#88, but it was not used regularly for state 



/.'/ '( KINCHAM PALACE. 



199 



ceremonies until Whitehall was burned. From this official use of St. fames 
Palace comes the title of "The Court of St. James." Queen Anne, the four 
Georges, and William III. resided in 
the palace, and in its chapel Queen 
Victoria was married, hut she only 
holds court drawing-rooms and levees 
there, using Buckingham Palace for 
her residence. Passing through the 
gateway into the quadrangle, the vis- 
itor enters the Color Court, so called 
from the colors of the household res/- 
iment on duty being placed there. 
The state apartments are on the south 
front. The great sight of St. fames 
is the queen's drawing-room in the 
height of the season, when presenta- 
tions are made at court. On such 
occasions the "Yeomen of the ( iuard," 
a body instituted by Henry VII., line 
the chamber, and the " Gentlemen-at- 
Arms," instituted by Henry VIII., are 
also on duty, wearing a uniform of 
scarlet and gold and carrying small 
battle-axes covered with crimson vel- 
vet. Each body has a captain, who gateway of st. james palace. 

is a nobleman, these offices being highly prized and usually changed with the 
ministry. 

BU< KINGHAM PALACE. 

We have been to the queen's country-home at Windsor, and will now visit 
her town-house, Buckingham Palace, which is also in St. James Park. Here 
stood a plain brick mansion, built in 1703 by the I hike of Buckingham, and in 
which was gathered the famous library of George 111., which is now in the 
British Museum. The house was described as "dull, dowdy, and decent," but 
in 1825 it was greatly enlarged and improved, and Queen Victoria took pos- 
session of the new palace in 1837, and has lived there ever since. Her increas 
ing family necessitated the construction of a large addition in 1846, and a few 
years afterwards the Marble Arch, which till then formed the entrance, was 
moved from Buckingham Palace to Hyde Park, and a fine ball-room construct- 




200 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



ed instead. This palace contains a gorgeously-decorated throne-room and a 
fine picture-gallery, the grand staircase leading up to the state-apartments being 
of marble. The gardens of Buckingham Palace cover about forty acres : in 
them are a pavilion and an attractive chapel, the latter having been formerly a 
conservatory. At the rear of the palace, concealed from view by a high mound, 
are the queen's stables or mews, so called because the royal stables were for- 




I1UCKINGHAM PALACE. GARDEN FRONT. 



merly built in a place used for keeping falcons. In these stables is the gaudily- 
decorated state coach, built in i 762 at a cost of $38,000. Marlborough House, 
the town-residence of the Prince of Wales, adjoins St. James Palace, but is not 
very attractive. It was originally built for the first Duke of Marlborough, who 
died in it, and is said to have been designed by Wren, having afterwards been 
enlarged when it became a royal residence. 



KENSINGTON PALACE. 

Standing on the west side of the Kensington Gardens is the plain, irregular 

red brick structure known as Kensington Palace, which was originally Lord 

Chancellor Finch's house. William III. bought it from his grandson, an d 

greatly enlarged it. Here died William and Mary, Queen Anne, and George 



KENSINGTON PALACE. 



20I 



II., and here Victoria was born. Perhaps the most interesting recent event 
that Kensington Palace has witnessed was the notification to this princess of 
the death of William IV. He died on the night of June 19, 1S37, and at two 
o'clock the next morning the Archbishop of Canterbury and the lord cham- 
berlain set out to announce the event to the young sovereign. They reached 
Kensington Palace about five o'clock, early, but in broad daylight, and they 




KENSINGTON PALACE, WEST FRONT. 

knocked and rang and made a commotion for a considerable time before they 
could arouse the porter at the gate. Being admitted, they were kept waiting 
in the courtyard, and then, seeming to be forgotten by everybody, they turned 
into a lower room and again rang and pounded. Servants appearing, they 
desired that an attendant might be sent to inform the princess that they 
requested an audience on business of importance. Then there was more 
delay, and another ringing to learn the cause, which ultimately brought the 
attendant, who stated that the princess was in such a sweet sleep she could 
not venture to disturb her. Thoroughly vexed, they said, "We are come to 
the queen on business of state, and even her sleep must give way to that." 



202 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



This produced a speedy result, for, to prove that it was not she who kept them 
waitin r, Victoria in a few minutes came into the room in a loose white nicrht- 
gown and shawl, with her hair falling upon her shoulders and her feet in slip- 
pers, shedding tears, but perfectly collected. She immediately summoned her 
council at Kensington Palace, but most of the summonses were not received 
by those to whom they were sent till after the early hour fixed for the meeting. 
She sat at the head of the table, and, as a lady who was then at court writes, 
"she received first the homage of the Duke of Cumberland, who was not King 
of Hanover when he knelt to her; the Duke of Sussex rose to perform the 
same ceremony, but the queen with admirable grace stood up, and, preventing 
him from kneeling, kissed him on the forehead. The crowd was so great, the 
arrangements were so ill made, that my brothers told me the scene of swearing 
allegiance to their young sovereign was more like that of the bidding at an 
auction than anything else." 

THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. 
The finest of all the public buildings of the British government in London, 
the Houses of Parliament, are on the bank of the Thames in Westminster, 
and are of modern construction. The old Parliament Houses were burnt 
nearly fifty years ago, and Sir Charles Barry designed the present magnificent 
palace, which covers nearly eight acres and cost $20,000,000. The architecture 
is in the Tudor style, and the grand facade stretches nine hundred and forty feet 
alon^ r a terrace fronting on the Thames. It is richly decorated with statues 
of kings and queens and heraldic devices, and has two pinnacled towers at 
each end and two in the centre. At the northern end one of the finest bridges 
across the Thames — the Westminster Bridge — is built, and here rises the Clock 
Tower, forty feet square and three hundred and twenty feet high, copied in 
great measure from a similar tower at Bruges. A splendid clock and bells are 
in the tower, the largest bell, which strikes the hours, weighing eight tons and 
the clock-dials being thirty feet in diameter. The grandest feature of this 
palace, however, is the Victoria Tower, at the south-western angle, eighty feet 
square and three hundred and forty feet high. Here is the sovereign's entrance 
to the House of Peers, through a magnificent archway sixty-five feet high and 
having inside the porch statues of the patron saints of the three kingdoms — 
St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick — and one of Queen Victoria, between 
the figures of Justice and Mercy. From the centre of the palace rises a spire 
over the dome of the Central Hall three hundred feet high. In constructing 
the palace the old Westminster Hall has been retained, so that it forms a 
grand public entrance, leading through St. Stephen's Porch to St. Stephen's 



THE HOUSES OF PARLIAME.XT. 



Hall, which is ninety-five feet long ami fifty-six feet high, where statues have 

been placed of many of the great statesmen and judges of England. From 

this a passage leads to the Central Hall, an octagonal chamber seventy feet 

across and seventy-five feet high, with a beautiful groined roof. Corridors 

adorned with frescoes stretch north and south from this Central Hall to the 

House of Commons 

and the House of 

Peers. The former 

is sixty-two feet long, 

and constructed with 

especial attention to 

acoustics, but it only 

has seats for a little 

over two -thirds of 

the membership of 

the House, and the 

others must manage 

as they can. The 

Speaker's chair is at 

the north end, and 

the ministers sit on 

his right hand and 

the opposition on 

the left. Outside 

the House are the 

lobbies, where the 

members go on a 

division. The in 

terior of the House 

is plain, excepting 

the ceiling, which is 

richlv decorated THE VICTOR,A tower, houses of parliament. 

The House of Peers is most gorgeously ornamented, having on either side six 
lofty stained-glass windows with portraits of sovereigns, these windows being 
lighted at night from the outside. The room is ninety-one feet long, and at 
each end has three frescoed archways representing religious and allegorical 
subjects. Niches in the walls contain statues of the barons who compelled 
King John to sign Magna Charta. There are heraldic devices on the ceilings 
and walls, and the throne stands at the southern end. The " Woolsack." where 




204 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



sits the lord chancellor, who presides over the House, is a seat near the middle 
of the room, covered with crimson cloth. When the sovereign comes to the 
palace and enters the gateway at the Victoria Tower, she is ushered into the 
Norman Porch, containing statues and frescoes representing the Norman 

f?tmx w\-&£2& ! i Asm \M£!i fli ctH 




INTERIOR OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 



sovereigns, and then enters the Robing Room, splendidly decorated and 
having frescoes representing the legends of King Arthur. When the cere- 
mony of robing is completed, she proceeds to the House of Peers through 
the longest room in the palace, the Victoria Gallery, one hundred and ten 
feet long and forty-five feet wide and high. Historical frescoes adorn the 



HYDE PARK. 



205 



walls and the ceiling is richly gilded. This gallery leads to the Prince's Cham- 
ber, also splendidly decorated, and having two doorways opening into the 
House of Peers, one on each side of the throne. In this palace for six months 
in every year the British Parliament meets. 



HYDE PARK. 



When the Marble Arch was taken from Buckingham Palace, it was removed 
to Hyde Park, of which it forms one of the chief entrances at Cumberland 




THE MARBLE ARCH, 



Gate. This magnificent gate, which cost $400,000, leads into probably the best 
known of the London parks, the ancient manor of Hyde. It was an early 
resort of fashion, for the Puritans in their time complained of it as the resort 
of "most shameful powdered-hair men and painted women." It covers about 
three hundred and ninety acres, and has a pretty sheet of water called the 
Serpentine. The fashionable drive is on the southern side, and here also is 
the famous road for equestrians known as Rotten Row, which stretches nearly 
a mile and a half. On a fine afternoon in the season the display on these roads 



206 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




THE ALBERT MEMORIAL 



is grand. In Hyde Park are held the great military reviews and the mass- 
meetings of the populace, who occasionally display their discontent by batter- 
ing down the railings. At Hyde Park Corner is a fine entrance-gate, with the 
Green Park Gate opposite, surmounted by the Wellington bronze equestrian 
statue. The most magnificent decoration of Hyde Park is the Albert Me- 
morial, situated near the Prince's Gate on the southern side. The upper 



HYDE J 'ARK. 



20: 



portion is a cross, supported by three successive tiers of emblematic gilt fig- 
ures, and at the four angles are noble groups representing the four quarters 
of the globe. This was the masterpiece of Sir Gilbert Scott, and is considered 
the most splendid 
monument of mod- 
ern times. It marks 
the site of the Crys- 
tal Palace Exhibition 
of 1 85 1, in which 
Prince Albert took 
great interest: there 
are upon it one hun- 
dred and sixty-nine 
life-size portrait fig- 
ures of illustrious art- 
ists, composers, and 
poets.while under the 
grand canopy in the 
centre is the seated 
figure of the prince. 
Opposite is the Royal 
Albert Hall, and be- 
hind this the mag- 
nificent buildings of 
the South Kensing- 
ton Museum, which 
grew out of the Ex- 
hibition of 1851, and 
the site for which 
was bought with the 
surplus fund of that 

great display. This is a national museum for art and manufactures allied to 
art. Its collections are becoming enormous and of priceless value, and include 
many fine paintings, among them Raphael's cartoons, with galleries of sculp- 
ture and antiquities and museums of patent models. There are art-schools 
and libraries, and the buildings, which have been constructing for several 
years, are of rare architectural merit. The Royal Albert Hall is a vast am- 
phitheatre of great magnificence devoted to exhibitions of industry, art, and 
music. It is of oval form, and its external frieze and cornice are modelled 




THE PRINCIPAL ENTRANCE, NEW MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, SOUTH 

KENSINGTON. 



208 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



after the Elgin Marbles. Opposite it are the gardens of the Horticultural 
Society. 



A VIEW IN THE POULTRY. 

Going down into the heart of the old city of London, and standing in the 
street called the Poultry, the Hank of England and the Royal Exchange are seen 
over on the other side, with Threadneedle Street between them, and Lombard 

Street on the right hand, the region 
that controls the monetary affairs of 
the world. Turning- round, the Man- 
sion House is behind the observer, this 
J being the lord mayor's residence and 
the head-quarters of the city govern- 
ment. The Royal Exchange has been 
thrice built and twice burned — first in 
the great tire of 1666, and afterwards 
in 1838. The present Exchange, cost- 
ing $900,000, was opened in 1S44, and 
is three hundred and eight feet long, 
with a fine portico on the western front 
ninety-six feet wide, and supported by twelve columns, each forty-one feet 
high. Within is an open area surrounded by an arcade, while at the rear is 
Lloyds, the underwriters' offices, where the business of insuring ships is 




ROYAL EXCHANGE. 




HANK OF ENG1 INIi. 



transacted in a hall ninety-eight feet long and forty feet wide. Wellington's 
statue stands in front of the Exchange, and in the middle of the central area 
is a statue oi Queen Victoria. The Bank of England, otherwise known as the 



A VI Kir /.V THE POULTRY. 



209 




MANSION HOUSE, 



"Old Lady of Threadneedle Street," covers a quadrangular space of about 
four acres, with a street on each side. It is but one story high, and lias no 
windows on the outside, the architecture being unattractive. The interior is 
well adapted for the bank offices, which are constructed around nine courts. 
The bank has been built in bits, and gradually assumed its present size and 
appearance. It was founded in 1691 by William Paterson, but it did not 
remove to its present site until 1734. Its affairs are controlled by a governor, 
deputy governor, and twenty-four direct- m 
ors, and the bank shares of #500 par, 
paying about ten per cent, dividends 
per annum, sell at about #1400. It reg- 
ulates the discount rate, gauging it so 
as to maintain its gold reserves, and it 
also keeps the coinage in good order by 
weighing every coin that passes through 
the bank, and casting out the light ones 
by an ingenious machine that will test 
thirty-five thousand in a day. It also 
prints its own notes upon paper con- 
taining its own water-mark, which is the chief reliance against forgery. The 
bank transacts the government business in connection with the British public 
debt of about £3, 8 50,000,000, all in registered stock, and requiring two hun- 
dred and fifty thousand separate accounts to be kept. Its deposits aggre- 
gate at least $130,000,000, and its capital is $72,765,000. The bank is the 
great British storehouse for gold, keeping on deposit the reserves of the joint- 
stock banks and the private bankers of London, and it will have in its vaults 
at one time eighty to one hundred millions of dollars in gold in ingots, bullion, 
or coin, this being the basis on which the entire banking system of England is 
conducted. It keeps an accurate history of every bank-note that is issued, 
redeeming each note that comes back into the bank in the course of business, 
and keeping all the redeemed and cancelled notes. The earliest notes were 
written with a pen, and from this they have been improved until they have be- 
come the almost square white pieces of paper of to-day, printed in bold German 
text, that are so well known, yet are unlike any other bank-notes in exist- 
ence. Around the large elliptical table in the bank parlor the directors 
meet every Thursday to regulate its affairs, and — not forgetting they are 
true Englishmen — eat a savory dinner, the windows of the parlor looking 
out upon a little gem of a garden in the very heart of London. The Man- 
sion House, built in 1740, is fronted by a Corinthian portico, with six fluted col- 
:!7 



JIO 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



umns and a pediment of allegorical sculpture. Within is the Egyptian Hall, 
where the lord mayor tultils what is generally regarded as his chief duty, the 
giving of grand banquets. He can invite four hundred persons to the tables 
in this spacious hall, which is ornamented by several statues by British sculp- 
tors, over $40,000 having been expended lor its ornamentation. The lord 
mayor also has a ball-room and other apartments, including his Venetian par- 
lor and the justice room where he sits as a magistrate. From the open space 
in front of the Mansion 1 louse diverge streets running to all parts of London 
and the great bridges over the Thames. 



THE INNS OF COURT. 
The lour Inns of Court in London have been described as the palladiums 

of English liberty — the Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's 

Inn. There are over three thou- 
sand barristers members of these 
Inns, and the best known is prob- 
ably Lincoln's Inn, which is named 
after De Lacy, Earl of Lincoln,- 
who died in 131 2, and had his 
house on its site, his device, the 
lion rampant, being adopted by 
the Inn. The ancient gatehouse, 
which opens from Chancery Lane, 
is nearly four hundred years old. 
The Inn has an old hall dating 
from 1 506, and also a fine mod- 
ern hall, the Newcastle House, 
one hundred ami twenty feet long, 
built in Tudor style, with stained- 
glass windows and having life-size 
figures of several eminent mem- 
bers in canopied niches. Here is 
Hogarth's celebrated picture of 
" Paul before Felix." The Inn has 
a valuable library, and among its 
members has counted More, Hale, 
!l,r 1 uv " ,! Selden. Mansfield, and Hardwicke. 

Across Fleet Street, and between it and the Thames, is the Temple, a lane 

dividing it into the Inner and the Middle Temple, while obstructing Fleet Street 




THE INNS OF CO CRT. 



I I 



there was the old Temple Bar, one of the ancient city gates, which has recently 
been removed. The name is derived from the Knights Templar, who existed 
here seven centuries ago; and they 
afterwards gave the site to certain 
law-students who wished to live in 
the suburbs away from the noise of 
the city. Here in seclusion, for the 
gates were locked at night, the gen- 
tlemen of these societies in a bygone 
age were famous for the masques and 
revels given in their halls. Kings and 
judges attended them, and many were 
the plays and songs and dances that 
then enlivened the dull routine of the 
law. The Inner Temple has for its 
device a winged horse, and the Mid- 
dle Temple a lamb. Some satirist 
has written of these — 

" Their clients may infer from thence 
How just is their profession ; 
The lamb sets forth their innocence, 
The horse then expedition." 




SIR PAUL PINDAR S HOUSE IN BISHOPSGATE STREET. 

in 1240. Formerly, the lawyers waited 



Here is the old Templar Church of 
St. Mary, built in 1185 and enlarged 
for their clients in this ancient church. During recent years England has 
erected magnificent buildings for her law courts. The new Palace of justice 
fronts about five hundred feet on the Strand, near the site of Temple Bar, which 
was taken away because it impeded the erection of the new courts, and they 
cover six acres, with ample gardens back from the street, the wings extending 
about five hundred feet northward around them. A fine clock-tower sur- 
mounts the new courts. In this part of the Strand are many ancient struc- 
tures, above which the Palace of Justice grandly towers, and some of them 
have quaint balconies overlooking the street. 

While in old London the feasting that has had so much to do with the muni- 
cipal corporation cannot be forgotten, and on Bishopsgate Street we find the 
scene of many of the famous public dinners, savory with turtle-soup and white- 
bait — the London Tavern. Not far distant, and on the same street, is Sir Paul 
Pindar's House, a quaint structure, now falling into decay, that gives an excel- 
lent idea of mediaeval domestic architecture. 



I 2 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 

Fronting upon Great Russell Street, to which various smaller streets lead 
northward from Oxford Street, is that vast treasure house of knowledge whose 
renown is world-wide, the British Museum. The buildings and their court- 
yards cover seven acres, and have cost nearly #5,000,000 to construct. The 
front is three hundred and seventy feet long, the entrance being under a grand 
portico supported by rows of columns forty-five feet high. This vast museum 
originated from a provision in the will of Sir Hans Sloane in the last century, 
who had made a valuable collection anil directed that it be sold to the govern- 
ment for #100,000. Parliament, accepting the offer, in 1753 created the museum 
to take charge of this and some other collections. The present site, then 
Montagu House, was selected lor the museum, but it was not until 1828 that 
the present buildings were begun, and they have only recently been finished. 
The reading-room, the latest addition, is the finest structure of its kind in the 
world, being a circular hall one hundred and forty feet in diameter and covered 
with a dome one hundred and six feet high. It cost $750,000, and its librarv is 
believed to be the largest in the world, containing seven hundred thousand 
volumes, and increasing at the rate of twenty thousand volumes annually. Its 
collection of prints is also of rare value and vast extent, and by far the finest 
in the world. 



SOME LONDON SCENES. 

Let us now take a brief glance at some well known London sights. The 
two great heroes who are commemorated in modern London are Wellington 




WATERLOO BRIDGE:. 



and Nelson. Trafalgar Square commemorates Nelson's death and greatest vic- 
tory, the Nelson Column standing in the centre, with Landseer's colossal lions 



SOME LOXDOX SCENES. 



reposing at its base. Passing east- 
ward along the Strand, beyond Cha- 
ring Cross and Somerset House, we 
come to Wellington Street, which leads 
to Waterloo Bridge across the Thames. 
This admirable structure, the master- 
piece of John Rennie, cost $5,000,000, 
and was opened on the anniversary 
of the battle of Waterloo in 181 7. It 
is of granite, and with the approaches 
nearly a half mile Ions/, crossing the 
river upon nine arches, each of one 
hundred and twenty feet span. Pass- 
ing westward Irom Trafalgar Square, 
we enter Pall Mall, perhaps the most 
striking of the London streets in point 
of architecture. Here are club-houses 





llllll'illllillli'lJIIlllllllmillllillll.lllill lmllMllllim llJIlllllhll 
STATfE OF SIDNEY IIERRERT. 



SCHOMBERG HOUSE. 

and theatres, statues and columns, and 
the street swarms with historical asso- 
ciations. On the south side are the 
Reform and Carlton Clubs, the head- 
quarters respectively of the Liberal and 
Conservative parties, and a little be- 
yond, on the same side, the row of 
buildings of all sizes and shapes making 
up the War Office. Among them is a 
quaint old Oueen-Anne mansion of 
brick, with a curious pediment and 
having many windows. This is Schom- 
berg House, shorn of one wing, but 
still retained among so much that is 
grand around it. Also in Pall Mall 
is Foley's celebrated statue of Sidney 
Herbert, one of the most impressive in 



214 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




London — the head drooped sadly and reflectively, indicating that it is the image 

of a conscientious war-minister, who, overweighted with the responsibility of 

his office, was cut off prematurely. Although not one 
of the greatest men of England, Herbert's fame will 
be better preserved by his finer statue than that of 
many men who have filled a much larger space in her 
history. Marlborough House has an entrance on Pall 
Mall, and adjoining its gate is the curious and elab- 
^p orately decorated building of the Beaconsfield Club. 
Over the doorway the semicircular cornice does duty 
for a balcony for the drawing-room windows above. 
The doorway itself is an imposing archway strangely 
cut into segments, one forming a window and the 
other the door. 

London contains in the West End many squares 
surrounded by handsome residences, among them 
probably the best known being Belgrave, Russell, 
Bedford, Grosvenor, Hanover, and Cavendish Squares. 
Eaton Square is said to be the largest of these, Gros- 

doorway beaconsfikld cub. V enor Square the most fashionable, and Cavendish 

Square the most salubrious and best cultivated. The line of streets leading by 

( )xford Street to the Marble Arch entrance to Hyde Park is London's most 

fashionable route of city 

travel, and on Tottenham 

Court Road, which starts 

northward from Oxford 

Street, is the " Bell Inn " at 

Edmonton. It is not a very 

attractive house, but is inter- 
esting because it was here 

that Johnny Gilpin and his 

worth)' spouse should have 

dined when that day of sad 

disasters came which Cow- 

per has chronicled in John 

Gilpin's famous ride. The 

old house has been much 

, 1 • t 1 I • CAVENDISH SQUARE. 

changed since then, and is 

shorn of its balcony, but it has capacious gardens, and is the resort to this day 




SOME SCENES IX LONDON. 



215 



of London holiday-makers. It is commonly known as " Gilpin's Bell," and a 
painting of the ride is proudly placed outside the inn. Tottenham Court Road 
goes through Camden Town, and here at Euston Square is the London termi- 
nus of the greatest railway in England — the London and North-western Com- 
pany. Large hotels adjoin the station, and the Underground Railway comes 
into it alongside the platform, thus giving easy access to all parts ot the me- 
tropolis. This railway is one of the wonders of the metropolis, and it has cost 
about $3,250,000 per mile to construct. The original idea seems to have been 




THE "BELL" AT EDMONTON. 

to connect the various stations of the railways leading out ot town, and to do 
this, and at the same time furnish means of rapid transit from the heart of the 
city to the suburbs, the railway has been constructed in the form of an irreg- 
ular ellipse, running all around the city, yet kept far within the built-up portions. 
It is a double track, with trains running all around both ways, so that the pas- 
senger goes wherever he wishes simply by following the circuit, while branch 
lines extend to the West End beyond Paddington and Kensington. It is con- 
structed not in a continuous tunnel, for there are frequent open spaces, but on 
a general level lower than that of the greater part of London, and the routes 
are pursued without regard to the street-lines on the surface above, often pass- 
ing diagonally under blocks of houses. The construction has taxed engineer- 
ing skill to the utmost, for huge buildings have had to be shored up, sewers 



2 1 6 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



diverted, and, at the stations, vast spaces burrowed underground to get enough 
room. In this way London has solved its rapid-transit problem, though it could 
be done only at enormous cost. The metropolis, it will be seen, has no end of 




! HE " (H. I) TABARD INN. 



attractions, and lor the traveller's accommodation the ancient inns are rapidly 
giving place to modern hotels. Among London's famous hostelries is the "Old 
fabard Inn" in the Borough, which will probably soon be swept away. 



HOLLAND HOUSE. 

To describe London, as we said before, would fill a volume, but space for- 
bids lingering longer, and we will pass out of the metropolis, after devoting 
briei attention to one ol its historical mansions, the well-known Holland House. 
This tine old building of the time of fames I. stands upon high ground in the 
western suburbs of London, and its history is interwoven with several gene- 
rations of art-,, politics, and literature. The house is of red brick, embel- 
lished with turrets, gable-ends^ and mullioned windows. As its park has 



HOLLAND HOUSE. 



already been partly cut up for building-lots, the end of the celebrated mansion 
itself is believed to be not far off. Built in 1607, it descended to the first Earl 
of Holland, whence its name. Surviving the Civil Wars, when Fairfax used it 
for his head-quarters, it is noted that plays were privately performed here in 
Cromwell's time. In 1710, Addison married the dowager Countess of Holland 
and Warwick, and the estate passed to him, and he died at Holland House in 
1 719, having addressed to his stepson, the dissolute Ear! of Warwick, the 
solemn words, " I have sent for you that you may see how a Christian can 




HOLLAND HOUSE, SOUTH SIDE. 



die." Two years later the young earl himself died. In 1762 the estate was 
sold to Henry Vassall Fox, Baron Holland, the famous Whig, who died there 
in 1774. It is related that during his last illness George Selwyn called and 
left his card. Selwyn had a fondness for seeing dead bodies, and the dying 
lord remarked, "If Mr. Selwyn calls again, show him up: if I am alive I shall 
be delighted to see him, and if I am dead he would like to see me." He com- 
posed his own epitaph : " Here lies Henry Vassall Fox, Lord Holland, etc., 
who was drowned while sitting in his elbow-chair." He died in his elbow-chair, 
of water in the chest. Charles James Fox was his second son, and passed his 
early years at Holland House. Near the mansion, on the Kensington Road, 

2S 



21 8 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




manuscripts and autogr 
clocks, vases, cab 
inets, and carvings, 
and also a celebrated 
collection of minia 
tures. For over two 
centuries it was the 
ia\ orite resort of wits 
and beauties, painters 
and poets, scholars, 
l>h ilosop h v' rs, and 
statesmen. Lord 
Brougham says that 
in the time oi \ assail, 
Lord 1 lolland, it was 
the meeting- place ol 
the Whig party, his 
liberal hospitality 
being a srreal attract- 



DINING ROOM, HO] 1 AND HOUSE 

aphs 



was the Adam and Lve 
Inn, where it is said that 
Sheridan, on his way to 
and from Holland 1 louse. 
regularly stopped for a 
dram, and thus ran up a 
long bill, which Lord Hol- 
land ultimately paid. 

The house, built like 
half the letter 1 1. is o( red 
brick with stone finishings, 
and in the Elizabethan 
si\ le, with 1 hitch gardens 
of a later date. Much of 
the old-time decorations 
and furniture remains. 1 he 
library, a Ioiil; gallery, 
forms the eastern wing, 
and contains a valuable 
collection, including many 
There are tine pictures and sculptures, with old 



■■ 




rill. DUTCH GARDEN, HOLLAND HiHSi:. 



HOLLAND HOUSE. 



1:9 



ive force, and Macau lay 
writes that it can boast 
a oreater number of in- 
mates distinguished in 
political and literary his- 
tory than any other pri- 
vate dwelling- in I 'Jig- 
land. After Vassall's 
death his nephew main- 
tained the reputation of 
Holland House, dying in 
1840, when the estates 
descended to his only 
son, the late Lord Hol- 
land, who also kept up 
the character of the man- 
sion. But now, however, 
the glory of the famous 
old house is slowly de- 
parting, and has chiefly 
become a fragrant mem- 
ory. 

Eastward from Lon- 
don is the great park 




LIRRARY. HOLLAND HOUSE. 




ROGERS SEAT IN THE DUTCH GARDEN, HOLLAND HOUSE. 



which the queen in May opened 
with much pomp as a breathing- 
ground lor the masses of that 
densely-populated region, the 
east end of the metropolis — 
Epping Forest. This beautiful 
enclosure originally consisted 
of nine thousand acres, but en- 
croachments reduced it to about 
one-third that size. Reclama- 
tions were made, however, and 
the park now opened covers five 
thousand six hundred acres — a 
magnificent pleasure - ground. 



220 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



< ; K E E N W [ C H. 
The river Thames, steadily gathering force after sweeping through London 
past the docks, and receiving upon its capacious bosom the vast commerce of 
all the world, encircles the Isle oi Hogs (where Henry VIII. kept his hounds) 
below the city, and at the southern extremity of the reach we come to Green- 
wich. Mere go many holiday-parties to the famous inns, where they get the 
Greenwich fish-dinners and can look back at the great city they have left. 
Here the ministry at the close of the session has its annual whitebait din- 
ner. Greenwich was the Roman Grenovicum and the Saxon Green Town. 
Here encamped the Danes when they overran England in the eleventh cen- 
tury, and their fleet was anchored in the Thames. It became a royal residence 
in Edward I.'s time, and Henry [V. dated his will at the manor of Greenwich. 
In 14,;;. Greenwich Castle was built within a park, and its tower is now used 
tor the Observatory. Humphrey, Duke o\ Gloucester, then held Greenwich, 
and was the regent ol England during Henry \ I.'s minority. He was assassi- 
nated by rivals in 1447. and the manor reverted to the Crown. The palace was 
enlarged and embellished, and Henry VIII. was born there in 1491. He greatly 
improved the palace, and made it his favorite residence. Queen Elizabeth being 
born there in 1533. King Edward VI. (.lied at Greenwich in 1553. and Eliza- 
beth, enlarging the palace, kept a regular court there. It was her favorite 
summer home, and the chronicler o\ the time, writing of a visit to the place. 
s.i\s, in describing the ceremonial oi Elizabeth's court, that the presence- 
chamber was hung with rich tapestry, and the floor, alter the then fashion, was 
covered with rushes. At the door stood a gentleman in velvet with a gold 
chain, who introduced persons of distinction who came to wait upon the queen. 
A large number of high officials waited for the queen to appear on her way 
to chapel. I himateh she came out. attended b\ a gorgeous escort. She is 
described as sixty-live years old. very majestic, with an oblong face, fair but 
wrinkled, small black, pleasant eyes, nose a little hooked, narrow lips, and black 
teeth 1 caused by eating too much sugar). She wore false red hair, and had a 
small crown <^n her head and rich pearl drops in her ears, with a necklace oi 
tine jewels tailing upon her uncovered bosom. Her air was stately, and her 
manner ot speech mild and obliging. She wore a white silk dress bordered 
with large pearls, and over it was a black silk mantle embroidered with silver 
thread. I b-r long train was borne by a marchioness. She spoke graciously 
to those whom she passed, occasionally giving her right hand to a favored one 
to kiss. Whenever she turned her face in going along everybody fell on their 
knees. I he ladies ol the court following her were mostly dressed in white. 



GREENWICH. 



!2I 



Reaching the ante-chapel, petitions were presented her, she receiving them 
graciously, which caused cries of " Long live Queen Elizabeth !" She answered, 
•• 1 thank you, my good people," and then went into the service. 

King James I. put a new front in the palace, and his queen laid the founda- 
tion of the " House of Delight," which is now the central building of the Naval 
Asylum. King Charles I. resided much at Greenwich, and finished the " House 
of Delight," which was the most magnificently furnished mansion then in Eng- 
land. King Charles II., finding the palace decayed, for it had fallen into neglect 




GREENWICH HOSPITAL, FROM THE RIVER. 

during: die Civil Wars, had it taken down, and began the erection of a new 
palace, built of freestone. In the time of William and Mary it became the 
Royal Naval Asylum, the magnificent group of buildings now there being 
extensions of Charles II. 's palace, while behind rises the Observatory, and 
beyond is the foliage of the park. The asylum was opened in 1705, and con- 
sists of quadrangular buildings enclosing a square. In the south-western 
building is the Painted Hall, adorned with portraits of British naval heroes 
and pictures of naval victories The asylum supports about two thousand 
seven hundred in-pensioners and six thousand out-pensioners, while it has a 
school with eight hundred scholars. Bv a recent change the in-pensioners are- 
permitted to reside where they please, and it has lately been converted into a 
medical hospital for wounded seamen. Its income is about $750,000 yearly. 
The Greenwich Observatorv, besides heiny; the centre whence longitude is 



222 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 

reckoned, is also charged with the regulation of time throughout the king- 
dom. 

The Thames, which at London Bridge is eight hundred feet wide, becomes 
one thousand feet wide at Greenwich, and then it pursues its crooked course 
between uninteresting shores past Woolwich dockyard, where it is a quarter 
of a mile wide, and on to Gravesend, where the width is half a mile ; then it 




LONDON, FROM OKHKNVVICH PARK. 



broadens into an estuary which is eighteen miles wide at the mouth. Almost 
the only thing that relieves the dull prospect along the lower Thames is Shoot- 
er's Hill, behind Woolwich, which rises four hundred and twelve feet. Grave- 
send, twenty-six miles below London Bridge by the river, is the outer boundary 
of the port of London, and is the head-quarters of the Royal Thames Yacht 
Club. Its long piers are the first landing-place of foreign vessels. Gravesend 
is the head-quarters for shrimps, its fishermen taking them in vast numbers 
and London consuming a prodigious quantity. This fishing and custom-house 
town, lor it is a combination of both, has its streets filled with "tea- ami shrimp- 
houses." 

TILBURY FORT. 

On the opposite bank of the Thames is Tilbury Fort, the noted fortress that 
commands the navigation of the river and protects the entrance to London. 
It dates from Charles II. s time, fright from De Ruyter's Dutch incursion up 
the Thames in 1667 having led the government to convert Henry VIII.'s 
blockhouse that stood there into a strong fortification. It was to Tilbury that 
Queen Elizabeth went when she defied the Spanish Armada. Leicester put a 
bridge of boats across the river to obstruct the passage, and gathered an army 
of eighteen thousand men on shore. Here the queen made her bold speech 
of defiance, in which she said she knew she had the body of but a weak and 



THE THAMES MOUTH. 223 



feeble woman, but she also had the heart and stomach of a king, and rather 
than her realm should be invaded and dishonor grow by her, she herself would 
take up arms. She had then, all told, one hundred and thirty thousand soldiers 
and one hundred and eighty-one war-vessels, but the elements conquered the 
" Invincible Armada," barely one-third of it getting back to Spain. 

Thus we have traced England's famous river irom its source in the Cots- 
wolds until it falls into the North Sea at the mouth of the broad estuary 
beyond Sheerness and the Nore. Knowing the tale of grandeur that its banks 
unfold, Wordsworth's feelings can be understood as he halted upon Westmin 
ster Bridge in the early morning and looked down the Thames upon London : 
its mighty heart was still and its houses seemed asleep as the tranquil scene 
inspired the great poet to write his sonnet: 

"Earth has not anything to show more fair; 

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by 

A sight so touching in its majesty : 
This city now doth like a garment wear 
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare, 

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie 

Open unto the fields and to the sky ; 
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air. 
Never did sun more beautifully steep 

In his first splendor valley, rock, or hill ; 
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep! 

The river glideth at his own sweet will ; 
Dear God ! the very houses seem asleep. 

And all that mighty heart is lying still." 



V. 
LONDON, NORTHWARD TO THE TWEED. 

Harrow — St. Albans — Verulam — Hatfield House — Lord Burleigh — Cassiobury — Knebworth — Great Bed of 
Ware — The river Cam — Audley End — Saffron Walden — Newport — Nell Gwynn — Littlebury — Win- 
stanley Harwich — Cambridge — Trinity and St. John's Colleges — Caius College — Trinity Hall — The 
Senate House — University Library — Clare College — Great St Mary's Church — King's College — Corpus 
Christi College— St. Catharine's College — Queen's College— The Pitt Press — Pembroke College — Peter- 
house — Fitzwilliam .Museum — Hobson's Conduit — Downing College — Emmanuel College — Christ's 
College — Sidney-Sussex College— The Round Church — Magdalene College — Jesus College — Trump- 
ington — The Fenland — Bury St. Edmunds — Hengrave Hall — Ely — Peterborough — Crowland Abbey — 
Guthlac— Norwich Castle and Cathedral— Stamford — Burghley House — George Inn— Grantham — Lin- 
coln — Nottingham — Southwell— Sherwood Forest — Robin Hood — The Dukeries — Thoresby Hall — Clum- 
ber Park — Welbeck Abbey — Newstead Abbey — Newark — Hull — William Wilberforce — Beverley — 
Sheffield — Wakefield — Leeds— Bolton Abbey — The Strid — Ripon Cathedral — Fountains Abbey — Stud- 
ley Royal —Fountains Hall — York — Eboracum — York Minster — Clifford's Tower — Castle Howard — 
Kirkham Priory — Flamborough Head — Scarborough — Whitby Abbey — Durham Cathedral and Castle — 
St. Cuthbert — The Venerable Bede — Battle of Neville's Cross — Chester-le-Street — Lumley Castle — New- 
castle-upon-Tyne — Hexham — Alnwick Castle — Hotspur and the Percies— St. Michael's Church — Hulne 
Priory — Ford Castle — Flodden Field — The Tweed — Berwick — Holy Isle — Lindisfarne — Bamborough — 
Grace Darling. 

ST ALBANS. 

THE railway running from London to Edinburgh, and on which the cele- 
brated fast train the " Flying Scotchman " travels between the two cap- 
itals, is the longest in Britain. Its route northward from the metropolis to the 
Scottish border, with occasional digressions, will furnish many places of inter- 
est. On the outskirts of London, in the north-western suburbs, is the well- 
known school founded three hundred years ago by John Lyon at Harrow, 
standing on a hill two hundred feet high. One of the most interesting towns 
north ot London, tor its historical associations and antiquarian remains, is St. 
Albans in Hertfordshire. Here, on the opposite slopes of a shelving valley, 
are seen on the one hand the town that has clustered around the ancient abbey 
of St. Albans, and on the other the ruins of the fortification of Verulam, both 
relics of Roman power and magnificence. On this spot stood the chief town 
of the Cassii, whose king, Cassivelaunus, vainly opposed the inroads of Caisar. 
Here the victorious Roman, after crossing the Thames, besieged and finally over- 
threw the Britons. The traces of the ancient earthworks are still plainly seen 

224 



57; ALBANS. 



22 S 



on the banks ot the little river Yer, and when the Romans got possession there 
arose the flourishing town of Verulam, which existed until the British war- 
rior-queen, Boadicea, stung by the oppressions of her race, stormed and cap- 
tured the place and ruthlessly massacred its people. But her triumph was 
short lived, for the Romans, gaining reinforcements, recaptured the city. This 
was in the earlier days of the Christian era, and at a time when Christian per- 
secutions raged. There then lived in Verulam a prominent man named Alban, 




KKHM VKKULAM. 



^ - ST. ALHAN.S 

a young Roman of good family. In 
the year 303 a persecuted priest named 
Amphibalus threw himself upon the 
mercy of Alban, and sought refuge in his 
house. The protection was granted, and in a few days the exhortations of 
Amphibalus had converted his protector to Christianity. The officials, getting 
word of Amphibalus' whereabouts, sent a guard to arrest him, whereupon Alban 
dismissed his guest secretly, and, wrapping himself in the priest's robe and hood, 
awaited the soldiers. They seized him, and took him before the magistrates, 
when the trick was discovered. He was given the alternative of dying or 
sacrificing to the gods of Rome, but, preferring the crown of martyrdom, after 
cruel torments he was led to his doom. He was to be taken across the Ver to 
be beheaded, but miracles appeared. The stream, which had been a-flood, 
quickly dried up, so that the multitude could pass, and this so touched the 



226 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




mi n \v.\l 1 IT VERU1 AM. 



executioner that he refused to strike the blow ami declared himself also a 
convert. The executioner's head was quickly stricken off, and another heads- 
man obtained. Alban meanwhile was athirst, and 
at his prayer a spring broke from the ground tor 
his refreshment. The new executioner struck olt 
Allian's head, hut in doing so his eyes dropped 
from their sockets. On the spot where Alban 
died the abbey was afterwards built. His martyr- 
dom did not save Amphihalus, who was soon cap- 
tured and put to death at Redburn, a lew miles 
away, where his relies were afterwards discovered ami 
enshrined, like those ol his pupil, in the abbey. 

The sacrifice of the protomartvr brought its fruits. 
\ erulam became Christian, and within a century was pay- 
ing him the honors oi a saint. In the eighth centurj King 
( )ffa of Mereia, having treacherously murdered King Ethel- 
bert, became conscience-stricken, and to propitiate Heaven 
founded the abbey. He built a Benedictine monastery, 
which was richly endowed, and gradually attracted the 
town away from \ erulam ami over to its present site. This monastery existed 
until the Norman Conquest, when it was rebuilt, the ruins of Verulam serving 
a-. ,i quarry. Thus began the great abbey of St. 
Albans, which still overlooks the Ver, although it 
has been materially altered since. It prospered 
greatly, ami the close neighborhood to London 
brought many pilgrims as well as royal visits. The 
abbots were invested with great powers ami be- 
came dictatorial ami proud, having frequent con- 
tests with the townsfolk : ami it is recorded that 
one young man who applied tor admission to the 
order, being refused on account ol his ignorance, 
went abroad and ultimately became Pope Adrian IV. 
but he bore the abbey no ill-will, afterwards grant- 
ing it many favors. Cardinal Wolseywas once the 
abbot, but did not actively govern it. In 1539 its 
downfall came, and it surrendered to King Henry 
\ III. liie Ami ol surrender, signed by thirty- 
nine monks, is still preserved, and the seal is in 




the Brit 



isn 



\1 






MONASTERY GATE. 

Hie abbey is now in ruins ; the church and eatewa\ 



ST. ALBANS. 



> 27 



remain, but the great group of buildings 
that composed it has mostly disappear- 
ed, so that the old monastery is almost 
as completely effaced as Verulam. But 
the church, by being bought for $12000 
for the St. Albans parish church, is still 
preserved, and is one of the most inter- 
esting ecclesiastical structures in Eng- 
land ; yet its great length and massive 
central tower are rather unfavorable to 
its picturesqueness, though the tower 
when seen from a distance impresses 
by its grandeur and simplicity. In this 
tower, as well as in other parts of the 
church, can be detected the ancient 
bricks from Verulam. The ground-plan 
of St. Albans Church is a Latin cross, 

and it is five 
hundred 
and forty- 
eight leet 
long. The 
western 





THE TOWER OF THE ABBEY. 



STAIRCASE TO WATCIIING-GAI.I.EKY. 



part w a s 

erected in the twelfth, and the greater portion 
ol the nave and choir in the thirteenth, cen- 
tury. The floor of the choir is almost paved 
with sepulchral slabs, though of the two hun- 
dred monuments the church once contained bare- 
ly a dozen remain. At the back of the high altar 
was the great treasury of the abbey, the shrine 
enclosing St. Alban's relics, but this was de- 
stroyed at the Reformation: some fragments 
have been since discovered, and the- shrine thus 
reproduced with tolerable completeness. On the 
side of the chapel is a wooden gallery, with cup 
boards beneath and a staircase leading up to 
it. In the shrine and cupboards were tin- abbey 
treasures, and in the gallery the monks kept 



22i 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



watch at night lest they should be despoiled. This vigilance, we are told, 
was necessary, for rival abbeys were by no means scrupulous about the 
means by which they augmented their stores of relics. This quaint gallery, 
still preserved, is five hundred years old. Near the shrine is the tomb 
of Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, brother of King Henry Y. and regent 
during the minority of Henry 
VI., who was assassinated 
at Windsor. The tomb was 
opened in 1703, and the 
skeleton found buried among 
spices and enclosed in two 
coffins, the outer of lead. 
The vault remained open 
ed, and visitors purloined 
good Humphrey's bones till 
nearly all had disappeared, 
when the authorities con- 
cluded it was better to close 
up the vault and save what 
remained. The massive gate- 
house, which still exists, was 
built in Richard ll.'s reign, 
and was used for a jail until 
not lontr asjo they determined 
to put a school there. In front 
of it the martyr Tankerheld was burnt, 
and buried in 1555 in a little triangular 
graveyard which still exists, box. in his 
Book of Martyrs, relates that lie endurei 
the pain with great constancy, and testi- 
fied to the last against the errors ot his 
persecutors. 

In the town of St. Albans, near the 
abbey and at the junction of two streets, stands the ancient clock-tower, built 
in the early part of the fifteenth century, and mainly of Hint. It occupies the 
site of an earlier one said to have been erected by two ladies of Yerulam, who, 
wandering alone in the woods and becoming lost, saw a light in a house, sought 
refuse there, and erected the tower on the site as a memorial of their deliv- 
erance. The bell in this tower was in former days used to ring- the curlew. 




THE SHRINE AND WATCHING-GALLERY. 



ST. ALBANS. 



229 



The town itself lias little to show. 
In the church of St. Peter, among 
the monumental brasses, is the one 
to a priest often quoted, that reads: 

" Lo, all that here I spent, that some time had I ; 
All that I gave in good intent, that now have I ; 
That I neither gave nor lent, that now abie * I ; 
That I kept till I went, that lost 1." 

Edward Strong, the mason who 
built St. Paul's Cathedral in Lon- 
don under the direction of Wren, 
is also buried in this church. Its 
chief tenants, however, are the slain 
at the second battle of St. Albans 
in the Wars of the Roses. At the ^Sgg 
first of these battles, fought in 1455 
on the east side of the town, Henry 
of Lancaster was wounded and cap- 
tured by the Duke of York. The 
second battle, a much more im- 
portant contest, was fought on 




CI.OCK-TOWER, ST. ALBANS. 




BARNARD'S HEATH. 

Shrove Tuesday, February 17, 1461, at Barnard's Heath, north of the town, 

* This word means expiate. 



?3° 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



and near St. Peter's Church. Queen Margaret of Lancaster led her forces in 
person, and was victorious over the Yorkists under the Earl of Warwick, lib- 
erating the captive king, who was in the 
enemy's camp, and following the battle by 
a ruthless execution of prisoners. King 
Henry, who had gone to St. Alban's shrine 
in tribulation when captured in the earlier 
contest, also went there again in thanks- 
giving when thus liberated six years later. 
The town of St. Albans, by the growth of 
time, has stretched across the Ver, and one 
straggling suburb reaches into the north- 
western angle of the ruins of ancient Veru- 
lam, where it clusters around the little church 
of St. Michael within the Roman city. This 
is a plain church, built in patches, parts of 
it nearly a thousand years old, and is the 
burial-place of Francis Bacon, who was 
1$}H Baron of Verulam and Viscount St. Albans. 
'' j Within a niche on the side of the chancel 
is his familiar effigy in marble, where he sits 
in an arm-chair and contemplatively gazes upward. From these ruins of 
Verulam is obtained the best view of St. Alban's Abbey, with the town in the 
background, overlooked bv its clock-tower. 




SI MICHAELS, VERl'I.A.M. 



HATFIELD HOUSE. 
A short distance east of St. Albans is Hatfield, and in a fine park in the 
suburbs stands the magnificent mansion o\ the Marquis of Salisbury — Hatfield 
House. The place is ancient, though the house is completely modern. The 
manor was given by King Edgar to the monaster) at Ely, and, as in course 
of time the abbot became a bishop, the manor afterwards became known as 
Bishops Hatfield, a name that it still bears. The oldest portion of the present 
buildings was erected in the reign of Henry VII., and in the time of his suc- 
cessor it passed into possession of the Crown. Here lived young Edward VI., 
and he was escorted by the Earl of Hertford and a cavalcade of noblemen from 
Hatfield to London tor his coronation. The youthful king granted Hatfield to 
his sister Elizabeth, and here she was kept in Queen Man's reign after her 
release from the Tower. She was under the guardianship of Sir Thomas Pope 
when, in November, 1558, Queen Mary died, and Sir William Cecil sent mes- 



HATFIELD HOUSE. 



231 




^ 



sengers from London to apprise Elizabeth that the crown awaited her. We 
are told that when they arrived the princess was found in the park, sitting 
under a spreading oak — a noble tree then, but time has since made sad havoc 
with it, though the remains are carefully pre- 
served as one of the most precious memorials at 
Hatfield. The family of Cecil, thus introduced 
to Hatfield, was destined to continue associated 
with its fortunes. Sir William came to the manor 
on the next day, and then peers and courtiers ot 
all ilks flocked thither to worship the rising sun. 
On the following day the queen gave her first 
reception in the hall and received the fealty of 
the leading men of every party ; but she did not 
forget Cecil, for her earliest act was to appoint him 
her chief secretary, lord treasurer, and adviser — ^iS 
a tie that continued for forty years and was only 7fry&*M 
sundered by death. Cecil was afterwards made *$3%&t %$$& 
Lord Burghley, and the confidence thus first re- ^^^i*- O*. p». 
posed in him within the hall that was afterwards to Queen Elizabeth's oak, hatfield. 
become the home of his descendants was most remarkable. " No arts," writes 
Lord Macaulay, "could shake the confidence which she reposed in her old and 
trusty servant. The courtly graces of Leicester, the brilliant talents and accom- 
plishments of Essex, touched the fancy, perhaps the heart, of the woman, but 
no rival could deprive the treasurer of the place which he possessed in the 
favor of the queen. She sometimes chid him sharply, but he was the man 
whom she delighted to honor. Eor Burghley she forgot her usual parsimony, 
both of wealth and dignities; for Burghley she relaxed that severe etiquette 
tn which she was unreasonably attached. Every other person to whom she 
addressed her speech, or on whom the glance of her eagle eye fell, instantly 
sank on his knee. Eor Burghley alone a chair was set in her presence, and 
there the old minister, by birth only a plain Lincolnshire esquire, took his ease, 
while the haughty heirs of the Eitzalans and De Veres humbled themselves to 
the dust around him. At length, having survived all his early coadjutors and 
rivals, he died, full of years and honors." 

But it was not until after his death that Hatfield came into possession of his 
family. He built Burghley House near Stamford in Lincolnshire, ami left it to 
his younger son, Sir Robert Cecil. After Elizabeth's death, King James 1. 
expressed a preference for Burghley over Hatfield, and an exchange was 
made by which Hatfield passed into possession of Sir Robert, who had sue- 



232 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



ivrc In! his latlui .1- i hi I minister, and, though in weak health ami ol mall 
stature, was a wise and faithful servant oi the queen and of her successor. 
In Elizabeth's last illness, when sin- persisted in sitting propped up on a stool 
by pillows, lit- urged her to rest herself, anil inadvertently said she "must go 
to bed." rhe queen fired up. "Must!" cried she. "Is must a word to 
I)-- addressed to princes? Little man. little man, thy father it he hail been 
alive durst not have used that word." Sir Rob :rt did not survive the queen 
many years, and to him King [ames's peaceful succession to the throne is said 
to have been greatly due. The king made him the Earl oi Salisbury, and the 
title descended tor several generations, until, in 1773. the seventh earl was pro- 




11:1 n II. u SE. 



moted to the rank of marquis, and now Robert Cecil, the third Marquis ot 
Salisbury and one o\ the leaders of the Conservative party, presides over the 
estates at Hatfield. rhe chief entrance to Hatfield House is on the northern 
side, and above it rises a cupola. The buildings form three sides o! an oblong, 
the longer line fronting the north and the two wings pointing towards the 
south. 1'hey are of brick, with stone dressings ami facings, and are admired 
as a faithful example of the excellent domestic architecture ot the early part 
of the seventeenth century. The approach through the park from the town 
is ot great beauty, the grand avenue, bordered by stately trees, conducting 
the visitor to a court in front of the house enclosed bj a balustrade with hand- 
some gates. Within the building the most remarkable features are the gal- 
leries, extending along the entire southern front The gallery on the ground 



HATFIELD HOUSE. 



233 



floor was formerly a corridor, open on one side to the air; but at a compara- 
tively recent period this has been enclosed with glass, and thus converted into 
a gallery paved with black and white marble, and ornamented with arms and 
armor, some being trophies from the Armada ami others from the Crimea. 
Here is the rich saddle-cloth used on the white steed that Queen Elizabeth 
rode at Tilbury. There are a fine chapel and attractive state-apartments, but 
around the old house there lingers a tale of sorrow. The western wing was 
burned in 1835, and the dowager marchioness, the grandmother of the present 
marquis, then five years old, perished in the flames, which originated in her 
chamber. This wing has been finely restored, and the room in which she was 
burned contains her 
portrait, an oval me- 
dallion let into the wall 
over the fireplace. It 
is the sweet and sunny 
face of a young girl, 
and her tragic fate in 
helpless age reminds 
of Solon's warning as 
we look at the pic- 
ture : " Count no one 
happy till he dies." 
In the gallery at Hat- 
field are portraits ot 
King Henry VIII. and all six of his wives. In the library, which is rich in 
historical documents, is the pedigree of Queen Elizabeth, emblazoned in 1559, 
and tracing her ancestry in a direct line back to Adam ! The state bedrooms 
have been occupied by King James, Cromwell, and Queen Victoria, In the 
gardens, not far from the house, is the site of the old episcopal palace ot 
Bishops Hatfield, of which one side remains standing, with the quaint gate- 
house now used as an avenue of approach up the hill from the town to the 
stables. There is a tine view of the town through the ancient gateway. Here 
lived the princess Elizabeth, and in the halls where kings have banqueted the 
marquis's horses now munch their oats. Immediately below, in the town, is 
Salisbury Chapel, in which repose the bones of his ancestors. 

Also in Hertfordshire are Cassiobury, the seat of the Earls of Essex, whose 

ancestor, Eord Capel, who was beheaded in 1 64.cS for his loyalty to King Charles 

I., brought the estate into the family by his marriage with Elizabeth Morison ; 

and Knebworth, the home of Eord Lytton the novelist, which has been the 

30 




THE CORRIDOR, HATFIELD. 



234 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 






home of his ancestors 
since the time of Henry 
VII., when it was bought 
by Sir Robert Lytton. 
The " Great Bed of 
Ware " is one of the 
curiosities of the county 
— a vast bed twelve feet 
square, originally at the 
Saracen's Head Inn. It 
was built for King Ed- 
ward IV., and was curi- 
ously carved, and has 
had a distinguished place 
in English literary allu- 
view i-hrough old gateway, hatfielu. sions. The bed still ex- 

ists at Rye House in Hertfordshire, where ii was removed a few years ago. 
A dozen people have slept in it at the same time. 




\l DLEY END AND SAFFRON WALDEN. 

Journeying farther from London, and into the county of Essex, we come to 
the little river Cam, and on the side of its valley, among the gentle undulations 
of the Essex uplands, is seen the palace of Audley End, and beyond it the village 
of Saffron Walden. Here in earlier times was the abbey of Walden, which, 
when dissolved by Henry VIII., was granted to Sir Thomas Audley. who then 
stood high in royal favor. But almost all remains of this abbey have disap- 
pi ared, and Sir Thomas, who was Speaker of the 1 louse, got the grant because 
of his industry in promoting the king's wishes for the dissolution ot the relig- 
ious houses, and was also made Lord Audley of Walden. This, as Fuller tells 
us, was "a dainty morsel, an excellent receipt to clear the Speaker's voice, and 
make him sp :ak clear and well tor his master." But he did not live long to 
enjoy it. although giving the estate his name, and it passed ultimately to the 
Duke of Norfolk, after whose execution it became the property ol his son. 
Lord Thomas Howard, whom Queen Elizabeth made Baron Walden, and King 
lames appointed lord treasurer and promoted to be Earl of Suffolk. He built 
the great palace of Audley End, which was intended to eclipse every palace 
then existing in England. It was begun in 1603, and was finished in 1010, the 
date still remaining upon one of the gateways. King James twice visited Aud- 



AUDLEY END AND SAFFRON UAL/)/- V. 



*35 



ley End while building, and is said to have remarked, as he viewed its enormous 
proportions, that the house was too large for a king, though it might do for a 
lord treasurer. It cost over $1,000,000, but no accurate account was kept, 
and the earl was so straitened by the outlay, that after being dismissed from 
office he was compelled to sell out several other estates, and died nearly 
#200,000 in debt. The second and third earls tried to maintain the white 
elephant, but found it too heavy a burden, and the latter sold the house to 
King Charles II. for $250,000, of which #100,000 remained on mortgage. It 




AUDLEY END, WESTERN FRONT. 



was known as the New Palace, and became a royal residence. It consisted of 
a large outer court and a smaller inner one. Around these the buildings were 
constructed from one to three stories high, with towers at the corners and cen- 
tres of the fronts. The impression produced by the design is said not to have 
been very favorable, it being insufficiently grand for so vast a pile, and while 
it was a pleasant residence in summer, the want of facilities for heating made 
it in winter little better than a barn. When Pepys visited Audley End in 1660 
and 166S, his chief impression seems to have been of the cellars, for he writes: 
"Only the gallery is good, and, above all things, the cellars, where we went 
down and drank of much good liquor. And, indeed, the cellars are fine, and 



236 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



here my wife and I did sing, to my great content." It was in the following 
year that the house was sold to the king. In 1701, however, it passed back to 
the fifth Earl of Suffolk, and about twenty years later a large part of the struc- 
ture was taken down. Three sides of the great court, including the gallery 
referred to bv Pepys, were demolished, and Audley End was reduced to the 
buildings around the smaller quadrangle; this was further reduced in 1749, so 
that the house assumed its present appearance of three sides of a square, open 
towards the east, and thus remains an excellent type of an early Jacobean man- 
sion, its best view being from the garden front. Within it has fine apartments, 
and contains the only authentic portrait of George II. that is known. This king 
would never sit for his picture, and the artist by stealth sketched his likeness 
from a closet near the staircase of Kensington Palace, where he had an excel- 
lent view of the peculiar monarch. It is, as Thackeray says, the picture of a 
" red-faced, staring princeling," but is believed true to nature nevertheless. 
Lady Suffolk, it seems, was one of his few favorites. Audley End has been 
for a long time in possession of the Barons of Braybrooke, and is their princi- 
pal seat. Lord Cornwallis, of American Revolutionary remembrance, was a 
member of this family, and his portrait is preserved here. 

Over the undulating surface of the park, barely a mile away, can be seen the 
pretty spire of Saffron Walden Church, with the village clustering around it. 
Here on a hill stand the church and the castle, originally of Walden, but from 
the extensive cultivation of saffron in the neighborhood the town came to have 
that prefix given it; it was grown there from the time of Edward III., and the 
ancient historian Fuller quaintly tells us " it is a most admirable cordial, and 
under God I owe my life, when sick with the small-pox, to the efficacy thereof." 
Fuller goes on to tell us that " the sovereign power of genuine saffron is plain- 
ly proved by the antipathy of the crocodile thereto ; for the crocodile's tears 
are never true save when he is forced where saffron groweth, whence he hath 
his name of croco-deilos, or the saffron-fearer, knowing himself to be all poison, 
and it all antidote." Saffron attained its highest price at Walden in Charles 
II. 's time, when it was as high as twenty dollars a pound, but its disuse in medi- 
cine caused its value to diminish, and at the close of the last century its cul- 
ture had entirely disappeared from Walden, though the prefix still clings to the 
name of the town. While saffron was declining, this neighborhood became a 
oreat producer of truffles, and the dogs were trained here to hunt the fungus 
that is so dear to the epicure's palate. The church of St. Mary, which is a 
fine Perpendicular structure and the most conspicuous feature of Saffron Wal- 
den, was built about four hundred years ago, though the slender spire crown- 
ing its western tower is of later date, having been built in the present century. 



AUDLEY END AND SAFFRON WALDEX. 



237 



In the church are buried the six Earls of Suffolk who lived at Audley End, and 
all of whom died between 1709 and 1745. The ruins of the ancient castle, con- 
sisting chiefly of a portion of the keep and some rough arches, are not far from 
the church, and little is known of its origin. 
There is a museum near the ruins which 
contains some interesting antiquities 




a fine nat- 
ural-history 
collection. 
The newly- 
construc ted 
to w n - h a 1 
built in an- 
tique style, 
overhanging 
the footway 
and supported 
on arches, is 
one of the most 

interesting buildings in Saffron Walden : the mayor and corporation meeting 
here date their charter from 1 549. Not far away, at Newport, lived Nell 
Gwynn, in a modest cottage with a royal crown over the door. She was one 
of the numerous mistresses of Charles II.. and is said to have been the only 
one who remained faithful to him. She bore him two sons, one dvino- in 



VIEWS IN" SAFFRON WALDEN. 

I. Town-Hall. 2. Church. 3. Entrance to the Town. 



23« 



.' VGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



childhood, and the other becoming the Duke of St. Albans, a title created in 
[684, and still continued in the persons ol his descendants oi the family of 
Beauclerc. Nell was originally an orange-girl who developed into a variety 
actress, and, fascinating the king, he bought her from 1 .ord Buckhurst, her lover, 
for an earldom and a pension. Nell is said to have cost the king over ^300,000 
in lour years. She had her good qualities and was very popular in England, 
and she persuaded the king to found Chelsea Hospital for disabled soldiers, 
ami he also bore her genuine affection, for his dying words were. " Let not poor 
Nelly starve." She survived him about seven years. Also in the neighbor- 
hood, at Litdebury, was the home ol Winstanley, the builder of the first Eddy- 
stone Lighthouse, who perished in it when it was destroyed by a terrific storm 
in 1 70: 




II Mils \l H \K\VH II. 

Digressing down to the coast of Essex, on the North Sea. we find at the con- 
fluence of the Stour and Orwell the best harbor on that side of England, 
bordered by the narrow .wiA old-fashioned streets ol the ancient seaport o( 
1 [arwich. 1 [ere vast fleets seek shelter in easterly gales behind the break- 
water that is run out from the Beacon Hill. From lure sail many steamers 
to Rotterdam and Antwerp in connection with the railways from London, and 
the harbor-entrance is protected by the ancient Languard Fort, built by fames 1. 
on a projecting spit ol land now joined to the Suffolk coast to the northward. 
1 )ne ol the most interesting scenes at 1 [arwich is a group of old wrecks that has 
been utilized lor a series ol jetties in connection with a shipbuilder's vard. 
Weather-beaten and battered, they have been moored in a placid haven, even 
though it be on the unpicturesque coast of Essex. 



CAMBRIDGE. 



239 



CAM BR IDG !•:. 



Returning to the valley of the Cam, we will follow it down to the great 
university city of Cambridge, fifty-eight miles north of London. It stands in 
a wide and open valley, and is built on both banks of the river, which is nav- 
igable up to this point, so that the town is literally the " bridge over the Cam." 
The situation is not so picturesque or so favorable as that of the sister uni- 
versity city of Oxford, but it is nevertheless an attractive city, the stately 




BRIDGE, ST. John's COLLEi 

buildings being admirably set off by groups and avenues of magnificent trees 
that flourish nowhere to better advantage than in English scenery. The chief 
colleges an; ranged along the right bank of die Cam, with their fronts away 
from the water, while behind each there is a sweep of deliriously green meadow- 
land known as the "Backs of the Colleges," surrounded by trees, and with ;i 
leafy screen of foliage making the background beyond the- buildings. While 
the greater pari of modern Cambridge is thus on the right bank of the river, 
the oldest portion was located on a low plateau forming the opposite shore. 
It is uncertain when the university was first established there. Henry Beau- 



240 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AXD DESCRIPTIVE. 

clerc, the youngest son of William the Conqueror, studied the arts and sciences 
at Cambridge, and when he became king he bestowed many privileges upon 
the town and fixed a regular ferry over the Cam. By the thirteenth century 
scholars had assembled there and become a recognized body, according to 
writs issued by Henry III. In 1270 the title of a university was formally 
bestowed, and the oldest known collegiate foundation — Peterhouse, or St. 
Peter's College — had been established a tew years before. Cambridge has 
in all seventeen colleges, and the present act of incorporation was granted 
by Queen Elizabeth. The Duke of Devonshire is the chancellor. The student 
graduates either " in Honors " or " in the Poll." In the former case he can 
obtain a distinction in mathematics, classics, the sciences, theology, etc. The 
names of the successful students are arranged in three classes in a list called 
the Tripos, a name derived from the three-legged stool whereon sat in former 
days one of the bachelors, who recited a set of satirical verses at the time the 
degrees were conferred. In the Mathematical Tripos the first class are called 
Wranglers, and the others Senior and Junior Optimes. Thus graduate the 
" Dons " of Cambridge. 

TRINITY AND ST. JOHN'S COLLEGES. 

Let us now take a brief review of the seventeen colleges of Cambridge. 
In Trinity Street is Trinity College, founded in 1546 by Henry VIII. It con- 
sists of four quadrangular courts, the Great Court being the largest quad- 
rangle in the university, and entered from the street by the grand entrance- 
tower known as the King's Gateway. On the northern side of the quadrangle 
are the chapel and King Edward's Court, ami in the centre of the southern 
side the Queen's Tower, with a statue of Queen Mary. In the centre of the 
quadrangle is a quaint conduit. The chapel is a plain wainscoted room, with 
an ante-chapel filled with busts of former members of the college— among them 
Bacon and Macaulay — and also a noble statue of Newton. Trinity College 
Hall is one hundred feet long and the finest in Cambridge, its walls being 
adorned with several portraits. It was in Trinity that Byron, Dryden, Cowley, 
Herbert, and Tennyson were all students. There are said to be few spec- 
tacles more impressive than the choral service on Sunday evening in term- 
time, when Trinity Chapel is crowded with surpliced students. In the Master's 
Lodge, on the western side of the quadrangle, are the state-apartments where 
royalty is lodged when visiting Cambridge, and here also in special apartments 
the judges are housed when on circuit. Through screens or passages in the 
hall the second quadrangle, Neville's Court, is entered, named for a master of 
the college who died in 161 5. Here is the library, an attractive apartment 



TRINITY AND ST. JOHN'S COLLEGES. 



2 4 I 



supported on columns, which contains Newton's telescope and some of his 
manuscripts, and also a statue of Byron. The King's (or New) Court, is a 
modern addition, built in the present century at a cost of $200,000. From this 
the College Walks open on the western side, the view from the gateway look- 
ing down the long avenue of lime trees being strikingly beautiful. The Mas- 
ter's Court is the fourth quadrangle. 




HAM OF TRINITY COM.EGI 



Adjoining Trinity is its rival, St. [ohn's College, also consisting of four 
courts, though one of them is of modern construction and on the opposite 
bank ot the river. This college was founded by the countess Marraret ot 
Richmond, mother of Henry YIL, and opened in 1516, having been for three 
centuries previously a hospital. It is generally regarded from this circum- 
stance as being the oldest college at Cambridge. The gateway is a tower 
of mingled brick and stone and one of the earliest structures of the college. 
Entering it, on the opposite side of the court is seen the New Chapel, but 
recently completed, a grand edifice one hundred and seventy-two feet long and 
sixty-three feet high, with a surmounting tower whose interior space is open 
and rises eighty-four feet above the pavement. The rool and the windows are 



242 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



richly colored, and variegated marbles have been employed in the interior 
decoration. The eastern end is a five-sided apse; the ceiling is vaulted in 
oak, while the chapel has a magnificent screen. Between the first and second 
courts is the hall, recently enlarged and decorated, and the library is on the 
northern side of the third court. It is a picturesque room o\ lames l.'s time, 
with a timbered roof, whitened walls, and carved oaken bookcases black with 
age. The second court is of earlier date, ami a tine specimen of sixteenth- 
century brickwork. On the southern side is an octagonal turret, at the top 
oi which is tlie queer little room occupied by Dr. Wood, whose statue is in the 
chapel. When he first came to college from his humble home in the north of 




ST. JOHNS CHAFF.L. 

England he was so poor that he studied by the light of the staircase candle, 
and wrapped his feet in wisps of hay in winter to save the cost of a fire. He 
became the Senior Wrangler, and in due course a Fellow, ami ultimately 
master of the college. To this was added the deanery of Ely. 1 tying, he 
bequeathed his moderate fortune for the aid of poor students and the benefit 
ot his college. < H the third court the cloister on the western side fronts the 
river. I he New Court, across the Cam. is a handsome structure, 'acecl with 
stone and surmounted by a tower. A covered Gothic bridge leads to it over 
the river from the older parts of the college. In the garden along the river, 
known as the Wilderness. Trior the poet is said to have laid out the walks. 
Here among the students who have taken recreation have been Wordsworth 
and Herschel, Wilberforce and Stillinsffleet. 



CAIUS AND CLARE COLLEGES. 243 



CAIUS AND CLARE COLLEGES. 

It took two founders to establish Gonville and Caius College, and both their 
names are preserved in the title, though it is best known as Caius (pronounced 
Keys) College. Its buildings were ancient, but have been greatly changed in 
the present century, so that the chief entrance is now beneath a lofty tower, 
part of the New Court and fronting the Senate House. This New Court is 
a fine building, ornamented with busts of the most conspicuous men of Caius. 
Beyond is the smaller or Caius Court ol this college, constructed in the six- 
teenth century. The " Gate oi Virtue and Wisdom" connects them, and is 
surmounted by an odd turret. On the other side is the "Gate of Honor," a 
good specimen of the Renaissance. The "Gate of Humility" was removed in 
rebuilding the New Court. Thus did this college give its students veritable 
sermons in stones. The founders of Caius were physicians, and among its 
most eminent members were Hervey and Jeremy Taylor. Adjoining Caius 
is Trinity Hall, as noted for the law as its neighbor is for medicine, and imme- 
diately to the south is a group of university buildings. Among these is the 
Senate House, opened in 1730, where the university degrees are conferred. 
It has a fine interior, especially the ceiling, and among the statues is an impres- 
sive one of the younger Pitt. The most exciting scene in the Senate House 
is when the result of the mathematical examination is announced. This for 
a long time was almost the only path to distinction at Cambridge. Winn all 
are assembled upon a certain Friday morning in January, one of the examiners 
stands up in the centre of the western gallery and just as the. clock strikes 
nine proclaims to the crowd the name of the "Senior Wrangler," or first stu- 
dent of the year, with a result of deafening cheers ; then the remainder of the 
list is read. On the following day the recipients of degrees and visitors sit 
on the lower benches, and the undergraduates cram the galleries. Then with 
much pomp the favored student is conducted to the vice-chancellor to receive 
his first degree alone. The University Library is near by, and, as it gets a 
copy of every book entered for English copyright, it has become a large one. 
Some of the manuscripts it contains are very valuable, particularly the Codex 
Bcza, a manuscript of the Gospels given in 1 5S 1 by Beza. 

Adjoining Trinity Hall is the beautiful court of Clare College, dating from 
the time of the Civil Wars, when it replaced older structures. Its exterior is 
most attractive to visitors, exhibiting the pleasing architecture of the sixteenth 
century. The river-front is much admired, while the gateway is marked by 
quaint lantern-like windows. In the library is one of the rare Bibles of Sixtus 
V., and in the Master's Lodge is kept the poison-cup of Clare, which is both 



244 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



curious and beautiful. The gentle lady's mournful fate has been told by Scott 
in Marmion. Tillotson and other famous divines were students at Clare, and 
the college also claims Chaucer, but this is doubtful, though the college figures 

in his story ot the " Mill- 

•:-, 1 .. ,,. i,^'§£s|5> ; rr °' I rumpington, 

aiul also adults upon 



*- fK\n .. 








■TS>fi 



^^^ iB 




.-.- - 



BAi K OF CI \KI i OLLEGE, 






1 rumpington Street. Upon the opposite side of 
this street is Great St. Mary's Church, the univer- 
sity church, an attractive building of Perpendic- 
ular architecture and having tine chimes of bells. 1 [ere the vice-chancellor 
listens to a sermon every Sunday afternoon in term-time. Formerly, on these 
occasions, the "heads and doctors " of the university sat in an enclosed gal- 
lery built like a sort ot gigantic opera-box, and profanely called the "Gol- 
gotha." A huge pulpit faced them on the other cm\ of the church, and the 
centre formed a sort ot pit. Modern improvements have, however, swept this 
away, replacing it with ordinary pews. 



KING'S, CORPUS CHRISTI, AND QUEENS' COLLEGES 

[Yumpington Street broadens into the King's Parade, and here, entered 
through a modern buttressed screen pierced with openings tilled with tracery, 
is King's College. It was founded by Henry VI. in 1440, and in immediate 
connection with the school at Eton, from which the more advanced scholars 
were to be transferred. The great King's Chapel, which gives an idea of the 
grand scale on which this college was to be constructed, is the special boast of 
Cambridge. It is two hundred and eight) feet long, forty-five feet wide, ami 



KING'S, CORPUS CHRISTI, AND QUEENS' COLLEGES. 



M5 



seventy-eight feet high, with a marvellously fretted rool <>l stone, and large 

windows at the sides and ends tilled with beautiful stained glass. This is the 
mosc imposing of all tin; buildings in Cambridge, and occupies the entire 
northern side of the college court. Its tine doorway is regarded as the most 
pleasing part of the exterior design. 



The stained-glass windows are di- 
vided into an upper and lower series 
of pictures. The lower is a contin- 
uous chain ot gospel history, while 
the upper exhibits the ( )ld-Testament 

types of the subjects represented 
below. Although designed on such 
a ma<rnificent scale, the Wars ot the 
Roses interfered with the comple- 
tion of King's College, and even 
the chapel was not finished until 
Henry VIII. 's reign. The other 
college buildings are modern. 

Adjoining King's is Corpus Christi 
College, the buildings being almost 
entirely modern. Of the ancient 
structure one small court alone re 
mains, a picturesque steep rooted 
building almost smothered in ivy. 
Corpus Christi Hall is said to have 
b< en partly designed alter the great 
hall of Kenilworth. In its library 
are the famous manuscripts rescued 
from the suppressed monasteries, 
there being four hundred interest- 
ing and curious volumes ot these 
precious documents, which are most jealously guarde< 




KIN'f, s COLLEGE CHAPEL -INTERIOR. 



( )pposite Corpus is 

St. Catharine's College, with a comparatively plain hall and chapel. Behind 
this is Queens' College, an antique structure, though not a very ancient foun- 
dation. Its entrance-tower is of brick, and a quaint low cloister runs around the 
interior court. Within is Erasmus's Court, where are pointed out the rooms 
once occupied by that great scholar. .Across the river a wooden bridge leads to 
a terrace by the water-side with an overhanging border ot elms, and known as 
Erasmus's Walk. This college was founded by the rival queens, Margaret of 



2 4 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




Anjou and Elizabeth Wid- 
vile, and though it is very 
proud ot having had the 
great scholar <>l the Refor 
mation within its halls, he 
dors not seem to have ell- 
jfil tirely reciprocated the pleas- 
ure ; lor he complains in a 
letter to a friend that while 
there " he was blockaded 
with the plague, beset with 
thieves, and drugged with 
had wine." Returning to 
[Yumpington Street, we find 
on the western side the Uni- 
versity Printing Press,named 
from the younger statesman 
the Pitt Press, lie rep- 
resented the university in 
Parliament, and the lofts- 
square ami pinnacled tower 
ol this printing-office is one 
ot the most conspicuous ob- 
jects m Cambridge. Yet 
v of king's college chapel. even this structure has its 

contrasts, lor the "Cantabs" consider that its architecture is as had as its 

t\ pograph) is good, 

OTHER CAMBRIDGE COLLEGES. 

Pembroke College, near the Pitt Press, has a chapel designed by Christopher 
\\ ren and recently enlarged. This was the college ot' Spenser and Gray, the 
latter having migrated from the neighboring Peterhouse because of the prac- 
tical jokes the students played upon him. It was also Pitt's college. Opposite 

Pembroke is Peterhouse, or St. Peter's College, the most ancient foundation 
in Cambridge, established by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely, in 1284. 
Beyond Peterhouse is the Fitzwilliam Museum, a most successful reproduc- 
tion ol classic architecture, built and maintained by a legacy oi $500,000 left 
h\ Viscount hit william in 1S10. It contains an excellent art and literary col- 
lection, which was begun by the discount. This is regarded as probably the 



;1 ftiwjii frmri ^ ,-<»'": 




:ci'.ni in « unRinni . 

,, ii ii.. Pit) Pr, Thi i Uhurch « Greal St. Mary' I'hc ] iizv illiam A 



248 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



finest classical building constructed in the present century in England. A 
short distance beyond, .it the end ot a water-course, is an attractive hexagonal 
structure with niched recesses and ornamental capstones. This is Hobson's 
Conduit, erected in 1(114 n > Thomas Hobson. This benefactor of Cambridge 
was a carrier between London and the university, ami is said to have been the 
originator of "Hobson's Choice." Hie youngest foundation at Cambridge is 
Downing College, erected in 1S07, an unobtrusive structure, and near by is 
Emmanuel College, built on the site ol a 1 >ominican convent and designed 
b\ Wren. It was founded l>\ Sir Walter Mildmay, tin- Puritan, in 1 5S4. who 
on going to court was taxed by Queen Mary with having erected a Puritan 
college. "No, madam," he replied, " far be it from me to countenance anything 
contrary to your established laws, but I have set an acorn, which when it be- 
comes an oak God alone knows what will be the fruit thereof." Sir William 
Temple was educated at Emmanuel. Christ's College is mar l>v, chiefly inter- 
esting from its associations with Milton, whose rooms are still pointed out, 
while a mulberry tree that he planted is preserved in the garden. Latimer 
and Paley, with a host of other divines, were students here. This college was 
founded by Queen Margaret, mother ^{ Henry VII., and some beautiful silver 
plate, her gilt to the Fellows, is still preserved. At Sidney-Sussex College 
Cromwell was a fellow in 1010, and his eravon portrait hangs in the dining- 
hall. Owing to want of means, he left without taking a degree. An oriel 
window projecting over the street is said to mark his chamber. Upon Bridge 
Street is the Round Church, or St. Sepulchre's Church, obtaining its name irom 
its circular Norman nave, this being one of the four "Temple churches" still 
remaining in England, Across the Cam stands Magdalene College, founded 
in [519 by Baron Thomas Audley of Walden. Within the building behind it 
are the literary collections of Samuel Pepys, who was secretary to the Admiralty 
in the reigns ot Charles II. and lames II., together with the manuscript of his 
famous diary, a book ot marvellous gossip, recording the peccadilloes ot its 
author, the jealousy ot his wife, and the corruptions of the court, lie was 
educated at Magdalene. 

Jesus Lane leads out ol' Bridge Street to |esus College, remotely placed on 
the river-bank, and of which tin' chief building of interest is the chapel, a fine 
Gothic structure'. This college is upon the site of a Benedictine nunnery 
founded in 1133, and is entered 1>\ a lofty brick gate-tower which is much 
admired, and was constructed soon after the foundation of the college in 
1497 by the Bishop of Ely, whose successors until this day retain the gift of 
the mastership. From |esus Lane a path leads down to the boat-houses on 
the river-bank, where each college has a boat-club wearing a distinctive dress. 



THE FENLAND. 



249 



The racecourse is at the Long Reach, 
just below the town. Of the an- 
cient Cambridge Castle, built by 
the Conqueror in 106S, nothing re- 
mains but the mound upon Castle 
Hill, where the county courts arc 
now located. Cambridge, however, 
has little besides its university build 
ings to attract attention. In the 
suburbs are two colleges tor the 
instruction of lady students, and 
two miles away is Trumpington, 
near which is the site of the mill 
told of in Chaucer's Canterbury 
tale of the Miller of Trumpington. 
The place is now used for gates to 
admit the river-water into Byron's 
Pool, which is so called because the 
poet frequently bathed in it when he 
was an undergraduate of Trinity 
College. 







GATEWAY JESUS COL1 I ■(,! . 



THE FENLAND. 
The river Cam below Cambridge Hows through that country of reclaimed 
marshland which ultimately ends in the Wash, between Norfolk and Lincoln- 
shire, and is known as the Fenland. This "Great Level of the Fens " has 
been drained and reclaimed by the labors of successive generations of 
engineers, and contains about six hundred and eight) thousand acres of the 
richest lands in England, being as much the product of engineering skill as 
Holland itself. Not many centuries ago this vast surface, covering two thou- 
sand square miles, was entirely abandoned to the waters, forming an immense 
estuary of the Wash, into which various rivers discharge the rainfall of Central 
England. In winter it was an inland sea and in summer a noxious swamp. 
Tin more elevated parts were overgrown with tall reeds that in the distance 
looked like fields of waving corn, and immense flocks of wild-fowl haunted 
them. Into this dismal swamp the rivers brought down their freshets, the 
waters mingling and winding by devious channels before they reached the sea. 
The silt with which they were laden became deposited in the basin of the Fens, 
and thus the river-beds were choked up, compelling the intercepted waters to 



25' ' 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




force new channels through the ooze; hence there are numerous abandoned 

beds of old rivers still traceable amid the level of the Fens. This region now 

is drained and dyked, but 
in earlier times it was a 
wilderness ot shallow wa- 
ters and reedy islets, with 
frequent" islands" of firmer 
and more elevated ground. 
These were availed ol lor 
the monasteries ol the Fen- 
land — Ely, Peterborough, 
Crowland, ami others, all 
| established by the l'.ene- 
hengrave hall. dictines. The abbey of 

Bury St. Edmunds, although situated some distance from the marshland, may 

also be classed among the religious houses of tin- Fens. This abbey, which is 

a short distance east of Cambridge, was built in the eleventh century as the 

shrine oi St. Ed- 
mund, King of l.i-i 

Anglia, who was 

killed by the I )anes 

about tin' year S; ( >. 

It soon became one 

of the w ealthiest 

English monasteries, 

and was the chief re- 
ligious centre ol that 

section. ( )nly ruins 

remain, the chief 

being the abbe) 

gate, now the i>ro|>- 

env of the Marquis 

of Bristol, and the 

Norman tower and 

church, which have 

recently been re- road leading to ely close. 

stored. In the suburbs of Bury is Hengrave Hall, one of the most interesting 
liulor mansions remaining in the kingdom. Originally, it was three times its 

present size, and was built by Sir Thomas Kytson about 1525. Its gate-house 




~"- — 



THE FENLAND. 



251 



is rich in details, and the many windows and projections «>l the southern front 
group picturesquely. 

Following the Cam northward from Cambridge through the marshland, we 
come to the Isle of Ely, the great "fortress of the Fens," and standing upon 
its highest ground the cathedral of Ely. Here St. Etheldreda (bunded a mon- 
astery in the seventh century, which ultimately became a cathedral, Ely having 
been given a bishop in 1 109. The present buildings date all the way from the 




ELY CATHEDRAL, FROM 1 11 1 ; RAILWAY-BRIDGE. 



eleventh to the sixteenth century, so that they give specimens of all Gothic 
styles. The cathedral is five hundred and thirty-seven feet long, and from the 
summit ot its western tower can be gained a fine view of the spreading fens 
and lowlands of Cambridgeshire, amid which stands the Isle of Ely. One of 
the finest views ot this tower is that obtained from the road leading to Ely 
Close. Before drainage had improved the surrounding country this was one 
of the strongest fortresses in England, anil it was also one of the last to yield 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



to the Norm. in Conquest, its reduction causing King William heavy loss. 
Afterwards he regarded it as among his most loyal strongholds. The lofty 

tower, and indeed the whole cathedral, are 
landmarks tor the entire country round, and 
from the rising ground at Cambridge, fully 
twenty miles to the southward, can he seen 
standing out against the sky. from the 
dykes anil fields and meadows that have 
replaced the marshes along the Cam and 
( (use the huge tower can be seen looming 
up in stately grandeur. It is almost the 
sole attraction ol the sleepy little country 
town. The great feature of this 
massive cathedral is the wonderful 
central octagfbn, with its domelike 
roof crowned by a lofty lantern, 
which is said to be the only Gothic 
dome ot its kind in existence in 
England or France. We are told 
that the original cathedral had a 
central tower, which for some time 
showed signs of instability, until 
on one winter's morning in 1 32] 
it came down with an earthquake 
crash and severed the cathedral 
into tour arms. In reconstructing it, to ensure securitv, 
the entire breadth ot the church was taken as a base 
"or the octagon, so that it was more than three times 
as larsre as the original square tower. Magnificent 
windows are inserted in the exterior faces of the 
octagon, and the entire cathedral has been recently 
restored. It was to Bishop Cox, who then presided 
over the see of Ely, that Queen Elizabeth, when he 
objected to the alienation ot certain church property, 
wrote her famous letter: 
01. i> b " Proud Prei a 11 : You know what you were before 

' Old passagi from Eij Street to I made voti what vou are: it you do not immediately 

comply with my request, by Cod. 1 will unfrock you.' 




Prior Crawdon's I 
houses in High Street. 



did 



ELIZ Mil' I 11 R." 



PETERBOROUGH CA THEDRAL. 



253 



The bishop, it is almost unnecessary to say, surrendered. The town contains 
little of interest beyond some quaint old houses. 

PETERBOROUGH C A T H E D R A L . 

North-westward of Ely, and just on the border of the Fenland, Saxulf, a thane 
of Mercia who had acquired great wealth, founded the first and most powerful 
of the great Benedictine abbeys of this region in the year 655. Around this 









mm w«^ % 




I'KTF.HHOROI '.II 1 \ I IIKDKAI.. 



celebrated religious house has grown the town of Peterborough, now one of 
the chief railway-junctions in Midland Kn^land. The remains of the monastic 
buildings, and especially of the cathedral, are magnificent, the great feature of 
the latter being its western front, which was completed in the thirteenth century, 



*54 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




and has three great open arches, making probably the finest church-portico in 
Europe. On the left of the cathedral is the chancel of Becket's Chapel, now 

a grammar-school, while on the right is the 
ancient gateway ot the abbot's lodgings, 
which has become the entrance to the 
bishop's palace. The main part of the 
cathedral is Norman, though portions arc- 
Early English. It is built in the form of a 
cross, with a smaller transept at the western 
end, while the choir terminates in an apse, 
and a central tower rises from lour sup- 
porting arches. Within the cathedral, over 
the doorway, is a picture of old Scarlet, 
Peterborough's noted sexton, who buried 
Catharine of Arragon and Mary Queen of 
Scots. The nave has an ancient wooden 
roof, carefully preserved and painted with 
various devices. The transept arches are 
fine specimens of Norman work. Queen 
usLF. and choir, Peterborough cathedral. Catharine lies under a slab in the aisle of 

St. fohn's Chapel, but the rjemains of Queen Man were removed to West- 
minster Abbey by lames I., to the magnificent tomb he prepared there for his 
mother. 

C ROWLAND ABBEY. 

farther northward in the Fenland, and over the border in Lincolnshire, was 
the Benedictine abbey of " courteous Crowland," though its remains are now 
scanty. It derives its name from the "Land ot Crows," which in this part is 
drained by the Welland River and the great Bedford Level. On one of the 
many islands of firmer soil abounding in this oozy region the monks con- 
structed their monastery, but had little space for cultivation, and brought their 
food from remoter possessions. Now, Crowland is no longer an island, lor the 
drainage has made fast land all about, and the ruins have attracted a straggling 
village. Here is the famous "triangular bridge," a relic of the abbey. Three 
streams met. and the bridge was made to accommodate the monks, who, from 
whatever direction they approached, hail to cross one of them. The streams 
now are conveyed underground, but the bridge remains like a stranded mon- 
ster which the tide has abandoned, ami ^ives the children a play-place. Its 
steep half arches, meeting in the centre, are climbed by rough steps. The 



CROU-I.AXn ABBEY. 



: oo 



range 

o 



dissolved abbey served as a quarry for the village, and hence on this st 
bridge and on all the houses fragments of worked stone and ol sculpture 
everywhere appear. It was located at the eastern end of the village, where 
its ruins still stand up as a guide across the fens, seen from aiar. Most of it 
is in complete ruin, but the north aisle of the nave has been sufficiently pre- 
served to serve as the parish church of Crowland ; round about the church 
and the ruins extends the village graveyard. Set up in the porch beneath the 
tower is a memorial for William Hill, the sexton, who died in 1792. When 
forty years old he was blinded by exposure during a snowfall, yet he lived ior 




EAST END OF CROWLAND ABBEY. 

twenty-five years afterwards, able to find his way everywhere and to know 
every grave in the churchyard. 

In the earlier days of Christianity the solitudes in this Fenland had peculiar 
attractions for the hermits who fled from the world to embrace an ascetic life. 
Thus the islands each gradually got its hermit, and the great monasteries grew 
up by degrees, starting usually in the cell of some recluse. Guthlac, who lived 
in the seventh century, was of the royal House of Mercia, and voluntarily ex- 
iled himself in the Fens. This region was then, according to popular belief, 
the haunt of myriads of evil spirits, who delighted in attacking the hermits. 
They assaulted Guthlac in hosts, disturbed him by strange noises, once carried 
him far away to the icy regions of the North, and not seldom took the form of 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE 



crows, the easier to torment him ; but his steady prayers and penance ultimate- 
ly put them to flight, and the existence of his cell became known to the world. 
Ethelbald fled to Guthlac for refuge, and the hermit predicted he would become 
king, which in time came to pass. Guthlac died at Crowland, and the grateful 
kino- built a stone church there. The buildings increased, their great treasure 
being of course the tomb of the hermit, which became a source of many mira- 
cles. The Northmen in the ninth century plundered and destroyed Crowland, 
but it was restored, and in Edward the Conlessor's time was one of the five 
religious houses ruled by the powerful abbot of Peterborough. It became 
the shrine of Waltheof, the Earl of Northampton beheaded for opposing Wil- 
liam the Conqueror, and Crowland was thus made a stronghold of English 
feeling against the Normans, like the other monasteries of the Fens. Its fame 
declined somewhat after the Conquest, though its hospitality was fully main- 
tained. It had little subsequent history. The abbey was garrisoned by the 
Royalists, and captured by Cromwell in i 643, after which it fell into ruin. Such 
has been the fate of almost all the religious houses in the F"ens, the merits of 
which the people in the olden time judged according to a local rhyme which 
yet survives : 

"Ramsay, the bounteous of gold and of fee; 

Crowland. as courteous as courteous may be . 

Spalding the rich, and Peterborough the proud; 

Sawtrey, by the way, that poor abbaye, 

Gave more alms in one day than all they." 

NORWICH. 

Proceeding eastward out of the Eenland and among the hills of Norfolk, the 
little river Wensum is found to have cut a broad, deep, and trench-like valley 
into the chalk and gravel plateau. Upon the elevated bank of the river is the 
irregularly picturesque town of Norwich, with the castle-keep rising above the 
undulating mass of buildings, and the cathedral and its noble spire overtopping 
the lower portion of the city on the right hand. Norwich is an ancient town, 
but very little is known with certainty about it anterior to the Danish invasions. 
We are told that its original location was at the more southerly castle of Cais- 
ter, whence the inhabitants migrated to the present site, for — 

" Caister was a city when Norwich was none. 
And Norwich was built of Caister stone." 

Canute held possession of Norwich and had a castle there, but the present 
castle seems to date from the Norman Conquest, when it was granted to Ralph 
de Ouader, who turned traitor to the king, causing Norfolk to be besieged, 



NORWICH. 



'■57 



captured, and greatly injured.- Then die castle was granted to Roger Bigod. 
The town grew, and became especially prosperous from the settlement there 
of numerous Flemish weavers in the fourteen ;h century and of Walloons in 
Elizabeth's reign. It managed to keep pretty well out of the Civil Wars, but 

a local historian says, " The inhabitants 
have been saved from stagnation by 
the exceeding bitterness with which all 
party and local political questions are 
discussed and contested, and by the 






BjSffiBf 
ii IlijfS' s^"'' ¥(''f"r ~. 




■ set 







mm 




hearty way in which all classes throw themselves into all really patriotic move- 
ments, when their party feeling occasionally sleeps for a month or two." Nor- 
wich is pre-eminently a town of churches, into the construction of which flint 
enters largely, it being dressed with great skill into small roughened cubical 
blocks. 

The great attraction of Norwich is the cathedral, which stands upon a low 
peninsula enclosed by a semicircular sweep of the river, much oi the ground 
in this region having been originally a swamp. The cathedral is generally 
approached from its western side, where there is an open space in iront of the 
Close called Tombland, upon which two gates open irom it. These are St. 
Ethelbert's and the Erpingham gate. The latter, opposite the western front 
of the cathedral, is named for its builder, "old Sir Thomas Erpingham," whose 
"good white head," Shakespeare tells us, was to be seen on the field of Agin* 
court. The cathedral is a Norman structure, cruciform in plan, with an excep- 
tionally long nave, an apsidal choir, and attached chapels. The earliest parts 
of it were begun in 1096, and when partially completed five years afterwards 
it was handed over to the care of the Benedictine monks. Thirty years later 



258 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



the nave was added, but the cathedral was not completed until about 1150. 
Twice it was seriously injured by fire, and it was not thoroughly restored for a 
century, when in [278 it was again consecrated with great pomp, in the pres- 
ence of Edward 1. and his court, on Advent Sunday. The spire, which is one 
ol its most conspicuous features, was added by Bishop Percy in the fourteenth 





NORWICH CATHKDRAL. 



century, though. Inning been seriously injured by lightning, it had to be replaced 
afterwards. At the same time the building was greatly altered, its roots raised 
and vaulted, and repairs went on until 1536. Vet, with all the changes that 
were made in this famous cathedral, no other in England has managed to pre- 
serve its original plan so nearly undisturb d. 

Entering the nave from the westward, this grain! apartment is found to 



NORWICH. 



'■59 



extend two hundred and fifty feet, and to the intersection of the transepts 
comprises fourteen bays, three of them being included in the choir. The tri- 
forium is almost as lofty as the nave-arches, and the solidity of these, sur- 
mounted by the grandeur of the upper arcade, gives a magnificent aspect to 
the nave. Above is the 
fine vaulted roof, the elab- 
orately carved bosses giv- 
ing a series of scenes from 
sacred history extending 
from the Creation to the 
Last Judgment. Small 
chapels were originally 
erected against the organ- 
screen, one of them being 
dedicated to the young 
St. William, a Norfolk 
saint who in the twelfth 
century was tortured and 
crucified by some Jews. 
His body, clandestinely 
buried in a wood, was 
ion ml, miracles were 
wrought, and it was trans- 
lated to the cathedral. 
The Jews of Norwich 
were then attacked and 
plundered, and these out- 
rages were renewed a cen- 
tury later. But times have 
fortunately changed since 
then. The choir extends Norwich cathedral-the choir, looking east. 

to the eastern apse, and at the back of the altar recent alterations have exposed 
an interesting relic in a fragment of the original bishop's throne, an elevated 
chair of stone placed in the middle <>l the apse anil looking westward. On 
either side are apsidal chapels. Among the monuments is that to Sir William 
Boleyn, grandfather to the unfortunate Anne Boleyn. He lived at Blickling, 
about thirteen miles from Norwich, where Anne is believed to have been born. 
Several bishops also lie in the cathedral, and among the later tombs is that ol 
Dr. Moore, who died in 1779, and whose periwigged head is in grotesque juxta- 




26o 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



position with a cherub making an ugly face and appearing to be drying his 
eyes with his shirt. The spire of Norwich Cathedral rises two hundred and 
eighty seven feet. 

Norwich Castle is a massive block of masonry crowning the summit of a 
mound. Who first built it is unknown, but he is said by popular tradition to 
sit buried in his chair and hill armed dee)) down in the centre of this mound, 
and "ready for all contingencies." But the castle has degenerated into a jail, 
and the great square tower or keep, ninety-five feet square and seventy feet 
high, is the only part of the original structure remaining. It has been refaced 




NORWK II MAKKET-PLACE. 



with new stone, and the interior has also been completely changed. The moat 
is planted with trees, and on the outside slope the cattle-market is held every 
Saturday. Norwich has some historical structures. In its grammar-school 
Nelson was a scholar, and his statue stands on the ^reen. On the edge of 
Tombland stands the house of Sir fohn Falstaff, a brave soldier and friend of 
literature, whose memory is greatly prized in Norfolk, but whose name has 
been forgotten by many in the shadow oi Shakespeare's "Fat Jack." The 
chief centre of the town, however, is the market-place, on the slope of a hill, 
where modernized buildings have replaced some of the more antique struc- 
tures. I lore stands the ancient Guildhall, which in 1413 replaced the old Tol- 
booth where the market-dues were paid. Within is the sword surrendered to 
Nelson by Admiral Winthuysen at the battle of St. Vincent, and by him pre- 
sented to the chief city of his native county ol Norfolk. In the olden time 



BURGHLEY HOUSE. 



261 



the glory of Norwich was the Duke of Norfolk's palace, but it was destroyed 
at the end of the seventeenth century by the then duke in a tit of anger 
because the mayor would not permit his troop of players to march through 
the town with trumpets blowing. Not a brick of it now stands, the site being 
covered with small houses. Norwich was formerly famous for its trade in 
woollens, the Dutch introducing them at the neighboring village of Worsted, 
whence the name. Now, the coal-mines have aided the spinning-jenny, but 
the worsteds are overshadowed by other Norwich manufactures. Colman's 
mustard-factories cover ten acres, and Barnard's ornamental iron-work from 
Norwich is world-renowned. Norwich also contains an enormous brewery, 
but in this the city is not singular, for what is a Briton without his beer? 



BURGHLEY HOUSE. 

On the banks of the Welland River, a short distance above Crowland, is 
Stamford, in Lincolnshire, near which is located the well-known Burghley 




Bl'Kf.llI.F.Y 1101'SE. 



House, the home of Lord Treasurer Cecil, whose history is referred to 
in the notice of Hatfield House. This mansion, which is a short distance 
south of Stamford, is now the seat of the Marquis of Exeter, William Allayne 
Cecil. It is said to have furnished the text for Lord Bacon's " Essay on Build- 
ing," it having been completed but a short time previously. The plans of this 
famous house are still preserved in London. It is a parallelogram built around 
an open court, with a lofty square tower projecting from the western front, and 



262 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



having octangular turrets at the angles. The northern (which is the main) trout 
is divided into three compartments, and bears on the parapet "1587 as the date 
when the house was finished. Within the building a long- corridor, command- 
in- a view oi the inner court, leads to a stone staircase which rises to the top 
of the structure and is peculiarly decorated. There is a fine chapel, and in an 
adjoining room was Giordano's renowned painting of " Seneca Dying in the 
Hath." which was eulogized in Prior's poems, he having- seen it there, though 
it is now removed. One of the most interesting pictures in the gallery is that 
oi" Henrj Cecil, the tenth Earl .\nA the first Marquis o\ Exeter, his wife, and 
daughter. Tennyson lias woven the romance of their marriage into a poem. 
Cecil, b 'fore coming into his title, was living in seclusion in Shropshire, and 
fell in love with a farmer's daughter. He married her under an assumed 
name, and only disclosed his true rank when, succeeding to his uncle's title 
and estates, he became the lord o\ Burghley and took her home to Burghley 
House. Tennyson tells how she received the disclosure: 

"Thus her heart rejoices greatly, till .1 gateway she discerns 
With armorial bearings stately, and beneath the gate she turns; 

.1 mansion mo tic than .ill those she saw before: 

Many .1 gallant gay domestic bows before him .it the door. 
And the) -peak in gentle murmur, when they answer to his call, 
While he treads with footstep turner, leading on from hall to hall. 
I, while now she wonders blindly, nor the meaning can divine, 
Proudly turns he round and kindly. 'All of this is mine and thine.' 
Here he lives in state and bounty, Lord of Burghley, fan and free. 
Not a lord in all the county is so great a lord as he. 
All at once the color flushes her sweet face from brow to chin: 
As it were with shame she blushes, and her spirit changed within. 
Then her countenance all over pale again as death did prove; 
But he clasp'd her like a lover, and he eheer'd her soul with love." 

The building has many attractive apartments, including a ball-room and 
( hieen Elizabeth's chamber, but it is doubted whether the maiden queen ever 
visited it, though she did stay at Burghley's house in Stamford, and here made 
the celebrated speech to her old minister in which she said that his head and 
her purse could do anything. Burghley's eldest son. Thomas, was created 
Earl o( Exeter, and his descendants are now in possession of the house. 
His younger son. Robert, as previously related, was made Earl of Salisbury.and 
his descendants hold Hatfield House. The apartments at Burghley are tilled 
with historical portraits, ddie grand staircase on the southern side of the 
house is liner than the other, but is not s () full o\ character. The gardens ol 
Burghley were planned by "Capability brown." the same who laid out Kew. 



LINCOLN. 263 



He imperiously overruled King George III. in the gardening at Kew, and when 
he died the kiner is said to have exclaimed with a sigfh of relief to the under- 
gardener, " Brown is dead ; now you and I can do what we please here." 
Within St. Martin's Church in Stamford is the canopied tomb of the lord treas- 
urer, constructed of alabaster, and bearing his effigy clad in armor, with the 
crimson robes of the Garter; it is surrounded with the tombs of his descend- 
ants. It was into Stamford that Nicholas Nickleby rode through the snow- 
storm, and the coach stopped at the George Inn, which was a popular hostcl- 
rie in the days of Charles II., as it still remains. 

North of Stamford, on the river Witham, is the interesting town of Grant- 
ham, containing the quaint grammar-school founded by bishop box of Win- 
chester in 1528 where Sir Isaac Newton was educated. It is recorded by 
tradition that his career here was not very brilliant as a scholar — a circumstance 
which may be told, if for nothing else, at least for the encouragement of some 
of the school-boys of a later generation. 

LINCOLN. 

Continuing northward down the river Witham, we come to a point where the 
stream has carved in a limestone-capped plateau a magnificent valley, which, 
changing its course to the eastward, ultimately broadens on its route to the 
sea into a wide tract of fenland. Here, upon a grand site overlooking the 
marshes and the valley, stands the city of Lincoln, with its cathedral crowning 
the top of the hill, while the town-buildings spread down the slo]*e to the river- 
bank at Brayford Pool, from which the Witham is navigable down to Boston, 
near the coast, and ultimately discharges into the Wash. The Pool is crowded 
with vessels and bordered by warehouses, and it receives the ancient Fosse 
I )yke Canal, which was dug by the Romans to connect the Witham with the 
more inland river Trent. This was the Roman colony of Lindum, from which 
the present name of Lincoln is derived, and the noble cathedral crowns the 
highest ground, known as Steep Hill. William the Conqueror conferred upon 
Bishop Remigius of Fecamp the see of Dorchester, and he founded in 1075 
this celebrated cathedral, which, with its three noble towers and two transepts, 
is one of the finest in England. Approaching it from the town, at the foot of 
the hill is encountered the Stonebow, a Gothic gateway of the Tudor age, which 
serves as the guild-hall. The centre of the western front is the oldest part 
of Lincoln Cathedral, and the gateway facing it, and forming the chief entrance 
to the Close, is the Exchequer Gate, an impressive structure built in the reign 
of Edward III. The cathedral arcade and the lower parts of the two western 



264 



ENGLAND, PICTl'RESOVH AND /DESCRIPTIVE. 



towers and the western doorway were built in the twelfth century. Subse- 
quently an earthquake shattered the cathedral, and in the thirteenth century 
it was restored and extended by Bishop Hugh of Avelon, not being finished 
until 1315. The massive central tower is supported on iour grand piers com- 
posed of twenty-four shafts, and here is hung the celebrated bell of Lincoln, 




LINCOLN CATHEDKAL, FROM THE SOUTH-WEST. 

"Great Tom," which was recast about fifty years ago, and weighs five and 
a half tons. The transepts have splendid rose windows, retaining the 
original stained glass. Lincoln's shrine was that of St. Hugh, and his choir is 
surmounted by remarkable vaulting, the eastern end of the church being ex- 
tended into the Angel Choir, a beautiful specimen of Decorated Gothic, built 
in 12S2 to accommodate the enormous concourse of pilgrims attracted by St. 



LINCOLN. 



265 




whole structure is the "stone 
beam," a bridge with a nearly 
Hat arch, extending between 
the two western towers over 
the nave, composed of twenty- 
34 



266 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



two stones, each eleven inches thick, and vibrating sensibly when stepped 
upon. There is a grand view from the towers over the neighboring coun- 
try and far away down the Witham towards the sea. The exterior of the 
cathedral is one of the finest specimens of architecture in the kingdom, 
its porches, side-chapels, decorated doorways, sculptured capitals, windows, 
cloisters, and towers admirably illustrating every portion of the history 
of English architecture. Its interior length is four hundred and eighty-two 
feet, the great transept two hundred and fifty feet, and the lesser transept 
one hundred and seventy feet. The western towers are one hundred and 
eighty feet high, and the central tower two hundred and sixty feet, while the 
width of the cathedral's noble western front is one hundred and seventy- 
four feet. Upon the southern side of the hill, just below it, are the stately 
ruins of the Bishop's Palace, of which the tower has recently been restored. 
Bishop Hugh's ruined Great Hall is now overgrown with ivy, but the walls 
can be climbed to disclose a glorious view of the cathedral. 

The ancient Ermine Street of the Romans enters Lincoln through the best 
preserved piece of Roman masonry in England, the Newport Gate of two 
arches, where on either hand may be seen fragments of the old wall. Near 
the south-east corner of this originally walled area William the Conqueror built 
Lincoln Castle, with its gate facing the cathedral. The ruins are well preserved, 
and parts of the site are now occupied by the jail and court-house. Within 
this old castle King Stephen besieged the empress Maud, but though he cap- 
tured it she escaped. Her partisans recaptured the place, and Stephen in the 
second siege was made a prisoner. It suffered many sieges in the troubled 
times alterwards. In the Civil War the townspeople supported the king, but 
being attacked they retreated to the castle and cathedral, which were stormed 
and taken by the Parliamentary army. Afterwards the castle was dismantled. 
One of the interesting remains in Lincoln is the "Jew's House," the home in 
the Hebrew quarter of a Jewess who was hanged for clipping coin in the reign 
of Edward I. But the noble cathedral is the crowning glory of this interesting 
old city, the massive structure, with its three surmounting towers standing on 
high, bring visible for many miles across the country around. 

NOTTINGHAM. 
We will now cross over the border from Lincoln into Nottinghamshire, and, 
seeking tin- valley of the Trent, find upon the steep brow of a cliff by the 
river the ancient'castle of Nottingham, which is now surrounded by the busy 
machinery of the hosiery-weavers. When it was founded no one accurately 
knows, but it is believed to antedate the Roman occupation of the island. As 



NOTTINGHAM. 



267 



long ago as the tenth century there was a bridge across the Trent at Snoden- 
gahame — meaning the " dwelling among the rocks " — as it was then called, and 
afterwards the town suffered from the Danes. It is also suffered during the 
troubled reign of King Stephen. The castle was built by one of the Peverils 
soon after the Norman Conquest, and was frequently the abode of kings. 
It was here that Roger Mortimer was seized prior to being tried and hanged 
in London. King David of Scotland and Owen Glendower of Wales were 
held prisoners in Nottingham Castle, and from it Richard III. advanced to 
meet his fate on Bosworth Field, while Charles I. set up his standard and gath- 
ered his army at Not- 
tingham at the open- 
ing of the Civil Wars, 
the blowing down of 
the standard by a gale 
on Castle Hill being 
taken as ominous of 
the unfortunate ter- 
mination of the con- 
flict. The old castle, 
which has fallen into 
ruins, subsequently 
passed into posses- 
sion of the Duke of 
Newcastle, who clear- 
ed away almost the 
whole of the ancient 
structure and built a 
house upon the site. 
The city was noted for its manufactures as early as the reign of King John, 
and the hand-knitting of stockings was introduced in the sixteenth century. 
Previously to that time hosiery had been cut out of cloth, with the seams sewed 
up the same as outer clothing. As early as 1589 a machine for weaving was 
invented, but failing to reap a profit from it, the inventor, a clergyman, took it 
to Paris, where he afterwards died broken-hearted. Ultimately, his appren- 
tices brought the machines back to Nottingham, improved them, and pros- 
pered. Many improvements followed. Jedediah Strutt produced the " Derby 
ribbed hose;" then the warp-loom was invented in the last century, and the 
bobbin-traverse net in 1809. The knitting-machines have been steadily im- 
proved, and now hosiery-making is carried on in extensive factories that 




NOTTINGHAM CASTLE. 



268 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



give an individuality to the town. The rapidity with which stockings are 
reeled off the machines is astonishing. An ordinary stocking is made in tour 
pieces, which are afterwards sewed or knitted together by another machine. 
Some of the looms, however, knit the legs in one piece, and may be seen 
working off almost endless woollen tubes, which are afterwards divided into 
convenient lengths. Fancy hosiery is knitted according to patterns, the set- 
ting up of which requires great skill. \ ast amounts of lace are woven, and in 
the factories female labor preponderates. The upper town of Nottingham, 
clustering around the castle on the river-crag, has a picturesque aspect from 
the valley below. Among the features of the lower town is the market-place, 
.1 triangular area of slightly over four acres, where the market is held every 
Saturday, and where once a year is also held that great event of Nottingham, 
the Michaelmas goose fair. Here also disport themselves at election-times 
the rougher element, who. from their propensity to bleat when expressing dis- 
approbation, are known as the " Nottingham lambs." and who claim to be lineal 
descendants from that hero of the neighboring Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood. 



SOUTHWELL. 
We will now go down the valley of the Trent below Nottingham, and, 
mounting the gentle hills that border Sherwood Forest, come to the Roman 




SOI IHUkLL MINSTER AND RUINS OF THE ARCHBISHOPS PALACE. 



. SOUTHWELL. 



269 



station, Ad Pontem, of which the Venerable Bede was the historian. Here 
Paulinus was baptized, and it was early made the site of an episcopal see. 
The name was Sudwell at the Norman Conquest, and then it became South- 
well, and the noted minster was one of the favorite residences of the Arch- 
bishop of York. It is a quiet, old-fashioned place, with plenty of comfortable 
residences, and in a large church- 
yard on ground sloping away trom 
the main street, with the ruins of 
the archbishop's palace near by, is 
Southwell Minster. There are few 
finer examples of a Norman build- 
ing remaining in England, the three 
towers, nave, transepts, and chap- 
ter-house forming a majestic group. 
An enormous western window 
has been inserted by later archi- 
tects, rather to the detriment of 
the gable, and this produces a 
singular effect. The interior of 



the minster is magnificent. 



Th 




Norman nave is of eight bays with 
semicircular arches, surmounted by 
a triforium of rows of arches almost 
equal to those below, and rising 
from piers with clustered side-col- 
umns. It is nearly three-fourths 
the height of the lower stage, and 
this produces a grand effect. The 
flat roof is modern, it and the bells 
having been replaced after the 
church was burned in the last 

TM r *1 1 ■ THE NAVE, SOUTHWELL MINSTER. 

century. 1 he ruins of the archi- 

episcopal palace, erected six hundred years ago, have been availed oi in one 
portion for a dwelling-house. Wolsey built part of it, and beneath the 
battlemented wall enclosing the garden there was not long ago found the 
skeleton of a soldier in armor, a relic of the Civil Wars. The name ol the 
town is derived from its wells. The South Well is a short distance outside 
the limits in a little park. The Holy Well, which was inside the minster, is 
now covered up. Lady Well was just outside the church-walls, but a clergy- 



2/0 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



man fell into it one dark night and was drowned, and it too has been closed. St. 
Catherine's Well was surmounted by a chapel, and is in repute as a cure for 
rheumatism. The ancient inn of the Saracen's Head in Southwell, not far from 
the minster on the main street, witnessed the closing scene of the Civil War. 
After the battle of Naseby the Scotch had reached Southwell, and Montre- 
ville, an agent of Cardinal Mazarin, came there to negotiate on behalf of 
King Charles in 1646. The Scotch commissioners had rooms in the archi- 
episcopal palace, and Montreville lodged at the Saracen's Head. After the 
negotiations had proceeded for some time, the king in disguise quitted Oxford 
in April, and after a devious journey by way of Newark appeared at Montre- 
ville's lodgings on May 6th. On the south side of the inn was an apartment 
divided into a dining-room and bedroom, which the king occupied, and in the 
aiternoon, after dining with the Scotch commissioners, he placed himself in 
their hands, and was sent a prisoner to their head-quarters. The canny Scots 
before leaving stripped the lead from the roof of the palace, and it afterwards 
fell into ruin, so that Cromwell, who arrived subsequently, found it uninhabitable, 
an 1 then occupied the king's room at the Saracen's Head, his horses being 
stabled in Southwell Minster. Southwell since has had an uneventful history. 

THE DUKERIES. 
Nor far away is the well-known Sherwood Forest, wherein in the olden time 
lived the tamous forester and bandit Robin Hood. Roaming among its spread- 
ing oaks with his robber band, he was not infrequently a visitor to the border- 
ing towns, sometimes for pleasure, but oftener for "business." Who Robin 
was, or exactly when he lived, no one seems to know. He is associated alike 
with the unsettled times of Kings John and Richard, with Henry V. and with 
Jack Cade, but so much mystery surrounds all reports of him that some do not 
hesitate to declare Robin Hood a myth. But whoever he was, his memory and 
exploits live in many a ballad sung along the banks of the Trent and in the towns 
and villages of Sherwood Forest. His abiding-place is now divided up into 
magnificent estates, the most famous of them beintf known as "The Dukeries." 
One of them, near ( Hlerton, is Thoresby Hall, the splendid home of the Earl 
of Manvers, a park that is ten miles in circumference. North of this is the 
stately seat of the Duke of Newcastle — Clumber Park — charmingly situated 
between Ollerton and Worksop. From the entrance-lodge a carriage-drive 
of over a mile through the well-wooded grounds leads up to the elegant yet 
homelike mansion. It is of modern construction, having been built in 1770 
and received important additions since. Before that time the park was a 
tract of wild woodland, but the then Duke of Newcastle improved it, and con- 



THE DUKERIES. 



271 




structecl an extensive lake, covering ninety acres, at a cost of $35,000. It was 
originally intended for a shooting-box, but this was elaborately extended. In 
the centre of the west front is 
a colonnade, and between the 
mansion and the lake are fine 
gardens ornamented by a 
large fountain. The owner 
of Clumber is the lineal rep- 
resentative of the family of p- 
Pelham-Clinton — which first 
appeared prominently in the 
reign of Edward I. — and is 
Henry Pelham Alexander 
Pelham-Clinton, sixth Duke 
of Newcastle. Clumber is clumber hall. 

rich in ornaments, among them being four ancient Roman altars, but the most 
striking feature is the full-rigged ship which with a consort rests upon the 
placid bosom of the lake. 

Adjoining Clumber Park is the most celebrated of " The Dukeries," Welbeck 
Abbey, which is one of the remarkable estates of England, a place peculiar to 
itself. The mansion is about four miles from Worksop, and the surrounding 
park contains a grand display of fine old trees, beneath which roam extensive 
herds of deer. Welbeck Abbey of White Canons was founded in the reign 
of Henry II., and dedicated to St. James. After the dissolution it was granted 
to Richard Whalley, and subsequently passed into possession of Sir Charles 
Cavendish, a son of the famous Bess of Hardwicke, whose grandson converted 
the abbey into an elaborate mansion, leaving little ot the original religious 
building standing. The present house was constructed in the seventeenth 
century, its old riding-house being completed in 1623, and William Cavendish, 
1 hike of Newcastle, who built it, was noted as the most accomplished horse- 
man of his time. For several generations Welbeck remained in possession 
of the Dukes of Newcastle, until in the last century an only daughter and 
the heiress of the abbey married William Bentinck, the Duke of Portland, 
thus carrying the estate over to that family, which now possesses it. The found- 
er of this ducal house came over from Holland as a page of honor with King 
William III. The present owner, who has just succeeded to the title, is the 
sixth Duke of Portland. The chief feature of the original Welbeck, the old 
riding-house, remains, but is no longer used for that purpose. It is a grand 
hall, one hundred and seventy-seven feet long, with a massive open-work tim- 



exgland, picturi xnd descriptive. 



ber roof o\ admirable design. The mansion is full of fine apartments, many 
o( them elaborate^ decorated, but it is not from these that the estate gets its 
present fame. The late Duke of Pordand, win* was unmarried, was an eccen- 
tric man. and he developed a talent for burrowing underground that made his 
house one of the most remarkable in England ami consumed enormous sums 
of money. The libraries o( Welbeck, five superb rooms opening into each 
other, a spacious hall adjoining, one hundred and fifty-nine feet long, the sta- 
bles, large gardens, hot-houses, lodges, and other a] artments, are all under- 
ground. They have glass roofs ol magnificent design. They are approached 
from ami connected with the rest ot the mansion by subterranean passai 
ami. being lofty rooms, the cost ot this deep digging and ot the necessary 



it . 



-i ' 










- 


... -* 






w 9 f f 






r r r r r 

> r r r ' 


r 




Jfcl" 




ill 


i * 




&i 







drainage and other adjuncts may be imagined. The new riding-house, the 
finest in existence. And also underground, but lighted by an arched glass root. 
is three hundred and seventy-nine by one hundred and six feet, and fifty feet 
high. It is elaborately ornamented, and at night is lighted by nearly eight 
thousand gas-jets. Near it are the extensive hunting-stables, coach-hous s 
and that marked feature of Welbeck. the covered "gallop," one thousand and 
seventy-two feet long, with large "hanging rooms *' at either end; these too 
are covered with glass, so as to get their light from the top. The whole place 
abounds in subterranean apartments and passages, while above ground are 
extensive gardens and dairies. In the gardens are the peach-wall, one thou- 
sand feet Ion;;, a similar range of pine-houses, a fruit-arcade of ornamental iron 
arches stretching nearly a quarter o\ a mile, with apple trees trained on one side 
and pear trees on the other, and extensive beds o\ flowers and plants. To 
construct and maintain all this curious magnificence there are workshops on a 



NEWARK. 275 



grand scale. This eccentric duke, who practically denied himself to the world, 
and for years devoted his time to carrying on these remarkable works at an 
enormous cost, employed over two thousand persons in burrowing out the bowels 
of the earth and making these grand yet strange apartments. When finished 
he alone could enjoy them, for Welbeck was for a long time a sealed book to 
the outer world. But the eccentric duke died, as all men must, and his suc- 
cessor opened Welbeck to view and to the astonishment of all who saw it. A 
few months ago the Prince of Wales and a noble company visited the strange 
yet magnificent structure, and then tor the first time the amazed assemblage 
explored this underground palace in Sherwood Forest, and when their won- 
der was satisfied they turned on the myriads of gas-jets, and amid a blaze 
of artificial light indulged in a ball — an unwonted scene for the weird old abbey 
of the eccentric and solitary duke. Like the fairies and mermaids of old in 
their underground palaces, the prince and his friends at Welbeck right merrily 

"Held their courtly revels down, down below." 

Also in this neighborhood is Newstead Abbey, the ancient seat of the Byrons. 
It is about eleven miles from Nottingham, and was founded by the Augustin- 
ians in the time of Henry II. In 1540 it came into possession of Sir John 
Byron, and a century later was held for King Charles. The poet Byron's 
bedroom remains almost as he left it, and on the lawn is the monument to his 
favorite dog, " Boatswain." The abbey also contains several relics of Living- 
stone, the African explorer. Near it is Robin Hood's Cave, and the neighbor- 
hood is full of remains of the famous chieftain, such as his Hill and his Chair, 
and Fountain Dale where Robin encountered Friar Tuck. 

NEWARK. 

Descending again to the banks of the Trent, we come to the causeway 
which carries over the flat meadows the Great North Road, the Roman mil- 
itary route to the north of England, which made it necessary to build a castle 
to hold the keys to its passage across the river. We are told that Egbert 
built the earliest fortress here, but the Danes destroyed it. Leofric, Earl of 
Mercia, rebuilt it, and gave the castle the name of the " New Work." But it 
too fell into decay, and in 1 123 the present castle was built, which though much 
altered and afterwards sadly ruined, has come down to the present time. It 
was here that, after his army was swamped in the Wash, King John died, some 
say by poison, but the prosaic historian attributes the sad result to over-indul- 
gence in "unripe peaches and new beer." In the Civil War it was a royal 
stronghold and sent King Charles large numbers of recruits. Then it was 



74 



VGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



besieged by Cromwell, but stoutly resisted, and Prince Rupert by some bril- 
liant manoeuvres relieved it. Finally, the king sought refuge within its walls 
after the defeat at Naseby, and here he was besieged by the Scotch until his 
voluntary surrender to them at Southwell, when two days afterwards, by his 
order, Newark capitulated to his captors. The Parliamentary forces afterwards 
dismantled the castle, and it fell into decay, but it has recently been restored as 




FROM' OF NEWARK CASTLE. 



well as possible, and the site converted into a public garden. Within the town 
ot Newark are several objects of interest. At the Saracen's Head Inn, which 
has existed from the time o( Edward 111., Sir Walter Scott tells us that (eanie 
Deans slept on her journey from Midlothian to London. The most striking 
part ol the town is the market-square, which is very large, and is surrounded 
bj old and interesting houses, several of them projecting completely over the 
foot .ml having the front walls supported upon columns — a most picture 

esque arrangement. One of these old houses has windows in continuous rows 
in the upper stories, having between them wooden beams and figures moulded 
in plaster. Through the openings between these old houses can be seen the 
church, which is one ot the finest parish churches in this district, so celebrated tor 



NEWARK. 



the magnificence of its religious houses. Surmounting its Early English tower is 
a spire of later date. The plan is cruciform, but with very short transepts, not 
(Mending beyond the aisles, which are wide and stretch the entire length of 

the church. There 
is a fine roof ot 
carved oak, and 
some of the stain- 
ed glass and inte- 
rior paintings are 
highly prized. It 
was at Newark 
that Thomas Mag- 
ana founded the grammar-school at which 
larian Dr. Stukeley was educated, and atter- 
1s the famous Warburton, who 
icame Bishop oi Gloucester. 

Newark, about three hun- 
dred years ago, there was a 
tavern called the "Talbot 
Arms," named in honor ot 
the Karl of Shrewsbury, 
whose countess was Mary, 
daughter of the famous Hess 
of Hardwicke by her second 
lusband, Sir William Caven- 
ish. Between the Talbots 
nd the neighboring family 
of Stanhopes at Shelford there 
newark castle and dungeon. was a feud, which resulted in 

the Stanhopes defacing the tavern-sign. This was not taken notice of by the 
Karl of Shrewsbury, but the quarrel was assumed by the imperious countess 
and her brother, Sir Charles Cavendish. They despatched a messenger to Sir 
Thomas Stanhope, accusing him ami his son of the insult, and declaring him a 
"reprobate and his son John a rascal." Then a few days later they sent a 
formal defiance: the Stanhopes avoided a duel as long as possible until they 
began to be posted as cowards, and then, having gone to London, whither 
Cavendish followed them, a duel was arranged with the younger Stanhope 
at Lambeth Bridge. They met after several delays, when it was found that 
Stanhope had his doublet so thickly quilted as to be almost impenetrable to a 




\. \ SCRIPTIVE. 




horsemen. I le fought bra\ ely, an< 

nded two others of liis opponents, 
when, reinforcements appearing, the 
Stanhope party fled, leaving si\ horses 
and nearly all their hats and weapons 
behind diem. But all feuds have an 



sword thrust, fhen diere was a new dis- 
pute, and a was proposed they should 
fight in their shins, but this Stanhope de 
dined, pleading a cold. Cavendish offer- 
ed to lend him a waistcoat, but this too 
was declined; then Cavendish waived all 
objections to the doublet and proposed to 
fight anyhow, but the seconds interposed, 
and die duel was put off. Stanhope was 
then again posted as a coward, and he 
m\k\ his adherents were hustled in the 
streets of London. A few days later 
Stanhope and his party w< re attacked in 
Fleet Street by the r/albots, and one of 
the former faction mortally wounded. 
The tend went on six years, when one 
day, Cavendish, riding near his home in 
Nottinghamshire with three attendants, 
was attacked bj Stanhope and twentj 
was ludlv wounded, but killed tour and 




R< il, 1 OOK X •' \ RTH. 

vn<\. And this one ultimately exhausted itself, the families within a century being 

united in marriage. 



in 1 1 Ah /' /:/ I i i; 1 1 i 



•■77 



HULL AND BEVERLEY. 

Following the Prenl down to the Humber, and turning towards the iea, 
we come to the noted seaporl ol Null, or, as n is besl known in those parts, 
Kingston upon I I nil. While nol possessing greal attractions for the ordinal") 
tourist, yel I lull ranks as the third seaporl o! England, bein < i i ond onl\ to 
London and Liverpool. Ii is the grca' pai kc:l station for the north ol I urope, 
with steam lines leading i<> Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Russia, and 
the Baltic, mosl ol ili<' English trade with those countries being centred al 
1 1 nil. 1 1 is a town ol extreme activity, its docks being all the time crowded 
with shipping, and its location, practically upon an island, with the river Humber 




I HI 1 1 r ' \i I : ■ l: \ i HUM 



on the south, the river Hull upon the east, and docks upon the northern and 
western sides, giving it every maritime convenience. The docks, though in 
ferior to those ol Liverpool, are the i hiel feature ol the town. The I lull River 
itsNl forms a natural dot I. about a mile and a hall long, and from this a i hain 
ol other docks leads through the warehouses and the town to the Humber, 
Hull possesses the Trinity House, one ol the three ancient establishments in 
England— the others being at London and Newcastle which wore founded 
lirst as .' n ligiou \ fraternity in the fourteenth cent ury, and became afterwards 
i itablishments for the reliel ol distressed and decayed ieamen and their 
families. The presenl Trinity House building was erected in the last cen 
tnry. The chiel ornament ol Null is the Wilberforce Monument, a pillar of 



278 



\ ~,LAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




sandstone seventj two feet high, erected about a half century ago, and sur- 
mounted by a statue y>\ the celebrated philanthropist. He was born on High 
Street August 24, 1 750. this being the most important thoroughfare in ancient 

Hull, but now a narrow and 
inconvenient lane following 
the right hank of the 1 lull 
River. 1 lore wore in former 
daj s the houses of the great 
1 lull men liants, and the Wil- 
berforce House is about half- 
wax down the street. It is a 
curious specimen of brick work, 
ol a style said to have been 
imported rom Flanders in the 
reign of William and Mary. 
It is a low, broad house with 
^25T— i- a surmounting tower over the 

HOUSE WHERE WILBERFORCE WAS BORN. doorway. Hull lias little else 

ol interest in the way of buildings. Its Holy Trinity Church, in the market- 
place, is the largest parish church in England, having recently been thoroughly 
restored, and the l'ow n 1 [all, 
built in the Italian style, with 
a clock-tower, is its finest edi- 
fice oi modern construction. 

\\ e ha\ e now come into 
\ orkshire, AnA a tew minutes' 
ride northward by railway along 
the valley o\ the Hull River 
brings the visitor to Beverley, 
an old-fashioned Yorkshire town 
o( considerable antiquity, eight 
miles from the seaport 
was anciendy a walled town, 
hut ot the entrance-gates only 
one survives, the North Bar, 
of the time o\ Edward III. It 

i> a good specimen o( brick x ! '- beverley. 

architecture, with mouldings and niches upon the surface and battlements at 
the top. I his is a favorite old town for the retired merchant ,\m\ tradesman 




SHEFFIt I I > 



79 




who wish to pass the declining years of life in quiet, and ii contains man) 
ancient buildings of interest. Several of these are clustered around the pic 
turesque markel square, which is an enclosure ol about four acres, and con 
tains a quainl cross, a 
relic of the time when 
it was customary to 
build market-crosses. 
These an< ienl crosses, 
which were prai ti< ally 
canopies erected over 
a raised platform, were 
generally used as pul- 
pits by the preachers 
when conducting re 
ligious services in the 
open air. Sometimes 
they were memorials 
ol the dead. We are 
told thai there were 
formerly five thousand 
ol these crosses of various kinds in England, but most ol them were destroyed 
in the Civil Wars. At these old crosses proclamations used to be read and 
tolls collected from ili< markel people. The covered market-cross at Beverley 
was one ol the last thai was erected. The name of this interesting town is 
said to ]>'■ derived from Beaver Lake, the site having at one time been sur- 
rounded by lakes thai were formed bj the overflowing of the I lumber, in which 
beavers lived in greal numbers. The Beverley Minster is an attractiv< Gothii 
church, and from the tops ol its towers there is an excellent view over die ri< h 
and almost level valley through which the I lull River Hows. Leconfield Castle, 
in the suburbs, was an ancient residence ol die Percys, ol which the moat 
alone remains. 

Sill. II I I LD. 

Let us now ascend the estuary of the I lumber, and, pro< eeding up its nume 
rmis tributaries, seek out various places ol interest in die We i Riding ol Yoi I 
shire. And first, ascending the river Don, we come to that great manufacturing 
centre of the "Black Country," sacred to coal and iron, Sheffield. Murray's 
Guide tells us thai while Sheffield is on< oi the largesl and most important 
towns in Yorkshire, it is "beyond all question the blackest, dirtiest, and hast 



M.MCKI.l ' < ii ill , BE\ ERLEY. 



280 



ENGLAND. PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



respectable." Horace Walpole in the last century wrote that Sheffield is "one 
of the foulest towns in England in the most charming situation." It is a crowd- 
ed city, with narrow and badly-arranged streets, having tew handsome public 
buildings, but brisding with coundess tall chimneys belching forth clouds of 
heavy smoke that hang like a pall over the place. Idle Don and its tributaries 
have their beds defiled, and altogether the smoky city is in unpleasant contrast 




V1ANOR-HOI S 



with the beauty ot the surrounding country. But, unfortunately, an omelette 
cannot be made without breaking eggs, nor can Sheffield make cutlery without 
smoke and bad odors, all of which have amazingly multiplied within the present 
century, its population having grown from forty-five thousand in 1S01 to over 
three hundred thousand now. It stands at the continence of the rivers Don 
and Sheaf, its name being connected with the latter. Three smaller streams 
join them within the city and are utilized for water-power. The factories 
spread over the lowlands of the Don valley, and mount up its western slopes 
towards the moorlands that stretch away to Derbvshire : it is therefore as hillv 



SHEFFIELD. 



28 I 



as it is grimy. Sheffield at the time of the Norman Conquest whs the manor 
of Hallam, which has passed through various families, until, in the seventeenth 
century, it became by marriage the property of the Puke of Norfolk. The 
present duke is lord of the manor of Sheffield, and derives a large income 
from his vast estates there. Sheffield Castle once stood at the confluence of 
the two rivers, but all traces of it have disappeared. The manor house, which 
has been restored, dates from the time of Henry \ III. It is three stories high, 
and a turret staircase leads from floor to floor, and finally out upon the flat 
roof. 

We are told that Sheffield manufactures of metals began in the days ot the 
Romans, and also that Sheffield-made arrows fell thickly at Crecy ami Agin- 
court. Richmond used 
them with effect at Bos- 
worth Field, and in 
the sixteenth century 
we read of Sheffield 
knives and whittles. 
Almost the only an- 
cient building of any 
note the city has is 
the parish church, but 
it is so much patched 
and altered that there 
is difficulty in distin- 
guishing the newer 
from the older parts. 
The chief among the 
modern buildings is 
the Cutlers' Hall, a 
Grecian structure 
erected for the Cut- 
lers Company in 1833. entraw e ro the cutlers' hall. 
and enlarged a few years ago by the addition of a handsome apartment. This 
company, the autocrats of Sheffield, was founded in 1024 by an ol Parliament 
with two express objects — to keep a check upon the number of apprentices 
and to examine into the quality of Sheffield wares, all of which were to be 
stamped with the warranty of their excellence, lint recently the restrictive 
powers of this company have been swept away, ami it is now little more than 
a grantor of trade-marks and an excuse for an annual banquet. Sheffield has 

36 




282 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



extensive markets and parks, and the Duke of Norfolk is conspicuous in his 
gifts of this character to the city ; but overtopping all else are the enormous 
works, which make everything into which iron and steel can be converted, 
from armor-plating and railway-rails down to the most delicate springs and 
highly-tempered cutlery. Their products go to every part of the world, and 
are of enormous value and importance. 



W A K 1 : FIELD. 
Upon the Calder, another tributary of the Humber, northward of the Don. 
is the town of Wakefield, which, until the recent great growth of Leeds, was 

the head-quarters ot 
the Yorkshire cloth- 
ing-trade. It was here 
that in the Wars ot the 
Roses the battle of 
Wakefield was fought 
on the closing day ot 
the year 1460. The 
I >uke ot York wished 
to remain at Wake- 
field on the defensive 
against Queen Mar- 
garet's Lancastrian 
army ot twenty thou- 
sand men, forhis forces 
were barely one-fourth 
that number. The Larl 

EDWARD IV. "S CHAPEL, WAKEFIELD BKIDGE. of Sal isbll T\', llOWeVeT 

prevailed on him to advance to meet the queen, and he probablv had no idea 
ot the strength she had to oppose him. The duke was soon cut off, and was 
among the first to fall, his head having afterwards been put on the Micklegate 
bar at York. Scenes ot great barbarity followed: the I hike of York's son, 
the Larl of Rutland, was murdered with shocking cruelty after the battle on 
Wakefield Bridge. Young Rutland's brother, afterwards Edward I\ '., erected 
a chapel on the bridge on the spot where he was slain, in order that prayer 
might li ■ constantly said in it for the repose of the souls of the followers of 
the White Rose who were slain in the battle. It covers thirty by twenty- four 
teet, and has recently been restored by a successor of Goldsmith's "Vicar of 
Wakefield." Near the bridge the spot is pointed out where the Duke of York 




LEEDS. 



28- 



was killed, now marked by two 
willows. There is a fine old 
three-gabled house in Wake- 
field which was built about 
the same date as the battle 
was fought, and is now divided 
into small shops. It is a oood 
specimen of the ancient black- 
and - white timbered house, 
though the carved work on 
the front has been consider- 
ably defaced. It stands in the 
Kirkgate, which runs down to 
the Calder, and is known lo- 
cally as the " Six Chimblies." 




WAKEFIKLD. 



LEEDS. 
About nine miles north of Wakefield is the great commercial capital of 
Yorkshire and centre of the cloth-trade, Leeds, built in the valley of the river 

Aire. Twelve hun- 
l^jj dred years ago this 
region, embracing 
the valleys of the Aire 
and the Calder, was 
the independent 
kingdom oi Loidis. 
It was soon overrun 
and conquered, how- 
ever, by the Anglian 
hosts, and ultimately 
the conquerors built 
here the monastery 
that in Bede's time 
was presided over 
by the abbot Thryd- 
wulf. This stood on 
the site, of the present parish church, and in the eighth century it was 
called "the monastery at Leeta." It stood at the crossing of two important 
Roman roads in the- midst of a forest. This was the beoinnine of the "Teat 




BRIGGATE, LOOKING NORTH. 



284 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



city, for soon a hamlet gathered around the monastery, though long since the 
woods, ami indeed all green things, were driven away from Leeds. The village 
was laid waste l>\ William the Conqueror, and at the time of the Domesday 
Book it was one of one hundred and titty manors held by Baron Ilbert de Lacy, 
whose possessions stretched hallway across Yorkshire. He built a castle at 
I eeds, which was afterwards a prison oi Richard II., but has long since dis- 
appeared. In 1530, Leland described Leeds as "a pretty market-town, as large 
as Bradford, but not so quick as it." Charles I. incorporated it, ami the cloth- 
market was then of some importance. In the Civil War it was taken by the 
Royalists, and afterwards retaken by Fairfax for the Parliament in a short, sharp 
struggle, in which a clergyman named Scholfield distinguished himseli by his 
valor, and "by his triumphant psalm-singing" as work after work was captured 
from the enemy. Flemish workmen brought cloth-making into this part ot 
Yorkshire as early as the reign of Edward III., and two centuries ago the 
i loth-makers prospered so much that they held a market twice a week at Leeds 
on a long, narrow bridge crossing the Aire. They laid their cloth on the battle- 
ments of the bridge and on benches below, and the country clothiers could buy 
for four cents from the innkeepers "a pot of ale, a noggin of porridge, and a 
trencher of boiled or roast beet." This substantial supply was known as the 
" brigg (bridge) shot." and from the bridge ran the street known as the Brig- 
gate, which has since developed into one of the finest avenues of the city. 
Leeds began to grow in the last century, when it became the chief mart of 

the woollen clothiers, 
while the worsted- trade 
gathered about Bradford. 
These still remain the 
centres of the two great 
divisions of the woollen 
industry, which is the 
characteristic business of 
Yorkshire. The factories 
began then to appear at 
Leeds, and in the present 
century the city has made 
astonishing advances, 
growing from fifty-three 
st. johns church. thousand population in 

1S01 until it exceeds three hundred thousand now. The great cloth-mart 
to-day is tor miles a region of tall chimneys and barrack-like edifices, within 




BOLTON ABBEY. 285 

which steadily roars machinery that represents some of the most ingenious 
skill of the human race. Within this hive of busy industry there still linger 
some memorials of the past among its hundreds of cloth-mills. Turning out 
of the broad Briggate into the quiet street of St. John, we come to the church 
built there by the piety of the wealthy clothier John Harrison, and consecrated 
in 1634. St. John's Church, which he built and presented to the town because 
the older parish church could scarce hold half the inhabitants, consists ot a 
lone nave and chancel, with a south aisle. It is of Gothic architecture, and 
much of the ancient woodwork, including the pulpit, remains. Arabescpies 
moulded in white plaster fill the panels between the main roof-beams. This 
interesting church has undergone little historical change excepting the recent 
rebuilding of the tower. John Harrison is entombed in the church. The old 
parish church in Kirkgate has been within a few years entirely rebuilt. The 
other churches of Leeds, like this one, are all modern, and it also has an imposing 
Town Hall, opened by the queen in 1858, in which are held the annual musical 
festivals, which have attained much importance. A statue of the Duke of Wel- 
lington stands in the open square in front. The two Cloth 1 [alls of Let ds, the 
Mixed Cloth Hall and the White Cloth Hall, where the business of selling was 
at first carried on, are now little used, the trade being conducted directly between 
the manufacturer and the clothier. Some of the mills are of enormous size, and 
they include every operation from the raw material to the finished fabric. But, 
with all their ingenious machinery, the cloth-weavers have not yet been able to 
supersede the use of the teasel, by which the loose fibres of wool are raised to 
the surface to form, when cut and sheared, the pile or nap. These teasels, 
which are largely grown in Yorkshire, are fastened into a cylinder, and at least 
three thousand of them will be consumed in " teasling " a piece ot cloth forty 
yards long. 

BOLTON ABBEY. 

North of the valley of the Aire is the valley of the Wharfe River, and, fol- 
lowing that pleasant stream a short distance up, we come to Rumbald's Moor 
and the water-cure establishments of the town of llkley, which is an array of 
villas and terraces spreading up the hillside from the southern bank of the 
river. The neighborhood is full of attractive rock- and river-scenery. In the 
suburbs is the palace of Ben Rhydding, built in the Scottish baronial style, 
with the Cow and Calf Rocks overhanging the adjacent park. The Panorama 
Rock also commands a wide prospect, while Rumbald's Moor itself is elevated 
over thirteen hundred feet. A few miles from llkley are the celebrated ruins 
of Bolton Abbey, standing on a patch of open ground, around which the 



286 



A LAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



Wharfe curves, but with much woods clustering 
mar the ruins and on the river-bank. Bolton 
stands in a deep valley, and on the opposite side 
o! the river rises the steep rock ol Simon's Seat, 
sixteen hundred feet high. Hie architecture ol the 

\i''^v! Iffi J^ iHr'P abbey is ol various styles, the wist front coming 

down to us from the reign ol Henry VIII., while its 
gateway is much older. ["here is no south aisle to 
the abbey, .md at present the nave and north aisle 
are fooled in and serve as the parish church. Die 
east end ol this aisle is divided from the rest by an 
ancient wooden screen so as to form a chapel, and 
beneath this is the vault where the former owners 
oi Bolton — the Claphams and Mauleverers — were 
buried. Some years ago, when the floor was being 

repaired, their coffins were found standing upright, whereol the poet tells us: 

" rhrough the I'liink^ in the fractured flooi 
Look down and see a grisly sight — 
A vault where the bodii ire buried upright: 
rhere, face by fao h ind 1>\ hand, 

Claphams and Mauleverers stand." 




GATEWAY IN nil: PRIORY, BOl fO!S 

U'.r.i \ 










Tilt: CHURCHYARD, BOl TON ABBEY. 



The ruins of the north transept are in lair preservation, d\\d the choir has a 



/>'<>/ /l>.\ .1/1/1/: r. 



287 



beautiful arcade, while through the openings beneath there is a charming view 
of the green-bordered river and of the hills beyond. Bolton Hall, which was 
the ancient gateway oi the abbey, is opposite its western front, and is one of 
the favorite homes in the shooting season of the Duke of Devonshire, its 
owner. 

A pleasant walk ot two miles along the Wharfe brines us to the famous 
Strid, where the river is hemmed in between ledges of rock, and the scene 
ol the rushing waters is very Ime, especially after a rain. Beautiful paths 
wind along the hillsides and through the woods, and here, where the ruins of 
Bardon Tower rise high above the valley, is a favorite resort of artists. At 
the most contracted part of the rocky river-passage the water rushes through 




MM STRID. 



a narrow trench cut out lor about sixty yards length, within which distance it 
(alls ten leet. The noise here is almost deafening, and at the narrowest part 
the distance across is barely live leet. It looks easy to jump over, but from 
tin- peculiar position of the slippery rocks and the confusing noise ot the rush- 



ing water it is a dangerous leap. 



"This striding placi 1. called 'the Strid,' 

A 11. line which it took ot yon- : 
.A thousand years hath it borne tli.it name, 
And sli.ill .1 thousand mon 



It was here thai young Romilly, the " Boy of Egremont," was drowned several 
centuries ago, the story of his death being told by Wordsworth in his poem of 
" The Force of Prayer." lb- had been ranging through Bardon Wood, hold- 
ing a greyhound in a leash, and tried to leap across the Strid: 



288 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



" He sprang in glee ; for what cared he 

That the river was strong and the rocks were steep: 
But the greyhound in the leash hung back, 
And checked him in his leap. 

"The boy is in the arms nf Wharfe, 
And strangled by a merciless force ; 
For nevermore was young Komilly seen 
Till he rose a lifeless corse." 

It is said that his disconsolate mother built Bolton Abbey to commemorate the 
death of her only son, and placed it in one of the most picturesque spots in 
England. 



RIPON AND FOUNTAINS. 

Proceeding still farther northward from the charming vale of Wharfe, we 
come to the valley of the Ure, which flows into the Ouse, a main tributary of 

the H umber, and to the famous cathe- 
dral-town of Ripon. This is a place of 
venerable antiquity, for it has been over 
twelve centuries since a band of Scotch 
monks came from Melrose to establish 
a monastery on the sloping headland 
above the Ure. A portion of the an- 
cient church then iounded is incorpo- 
rated in the present Ripon Minster, 
which was built seven centuries ago. 
It was burned and partly injured by 
the Scotch in the fourteenth century, 
and subsequently the central tower and 
greater part of the nave were rebuilt. 
It has recently been entirely restored. 
The cathedral consists of a nave, with 
aisles extending the full width of the 
western front, and rather broad for its 
length ; the transepts are short. Par- 
allel to the choir on the southern side is a chapter-house. It is one of the 
smallest cathedrals in England, being less than two hundred and ninety feet 
long, and other buildings so encompass it as to prevent a good near view. 
There is an ample churchyard, but the shrine of St. Wilfrid, the founder, 
whose relics were the great treasure of the church, has long since disappeared. 




RIPON MINSTER. 



RIPOX A.XD FOUNTAINS. 



289 



It appears that in ancient times there was great quarrelling over the posses- 
sion of his bones, and that Archbishop Odo, declaring his grave to be neglected, 
carried them off to Canterbury, but alter much disputing a small portion of the 
saint's remains were restored to Ripon. Beneath the corner of the nave is the 
singular crypt known as Wilfrid's Needle. A long passage leads to a cell from 
which a narrow window opens into another passage. Through this window 
we are told that women whose virtue was doubted were made to crawl, and 
if they stuck by the way were adjudged guilty. This is the oldest part of the 
church, and is regarded as the most perfect existing relic of the earliest age 
of Christianity in Yorkshire. The cathedral contains some interesting monu- 
ments, one of which demonstrates that epitaph-writing flourished in times agone 
at Ripon. It commemorates, as "a faint emblem of his refined taste," William 
Weddell of Newby, " in whom every virtue that ennobles the human mind was 
united with every elegance that adorns it." 

In the neighborhood of Ripon is the world- 
renowned Fountains Abbey, of which the re- 
mains are in excellent preservation, and stand 
in a beautiful situation on the verge of the fine 
estate of the Marquis of Ripon, Studley Royal. 
The gates of this park are about two miles from 
Ripon, the road winding among the trees, be- 
neath which herds of deer are browsing, and 
leading up to the mansion, in front of which is ^^ 




an attractive scene. The little river Skell, on its way to the Ure, emerges 
from a glen, and is banked up to form a lake, from which it tumbles over a 
pretty cascade. The steep bank opposite is covered with trees. John Aisla- 
bie, who had been chancellor of the exchequer, laid out this park in 1720, 



290 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



and such repute did his ornamental works attain that Studley was regarded 
as the most embellished spot in the North of England. Ultimately, through 
heiresses, it passed into the hands of the present owner. The pleasure-grounds 
were laid out in the Dutch style then in vogue, and the slopes ol the valley 
were terraced, planted with evergreens, and adorned with statues. Modern 
landscape gardening has somewhat varied the details, but the original design 

remains. In the gardens 
are the Octagon lower, 
perched upon a com- 
manding knoll, the Tem- 
ple o\ Piety, near the 
water side, and an arbor 
known as Anne Boleyn's 
Seat, which commands a 
superb view over Foun- 
tains 1 )ale. Let us enter 
this prett) glen, which 
gradually narrows, be- 
comes more abrupt ami 
rocky, ami as we go along 
the Skell leads us from 
the woods out upon a 
level grass) meadow, at 
the end of which stand 
the gray ruins of the 
famous Cistercian abbey. 

The buildings spread com- 
pletely across the glen to 
its craggj sides on either- 
hand. ( hi the right there 

[■HE rRANSEPT, FOUNTAINS VBHEY. is otllv room lot' .1 mad 

to pas-, between the transept anil the limestone rock which rears on high the 
trees rooted in its crannies, whose branches almost brush the abbey's state!) 
tower. ( )n the other side is the little river, with the conventual buildings car- 
ried across it in more than one place, the water flowing through a vaulted 
tunnel. These buildings extend to the liases ol" the opposite crags. The ruins 
are of great si e, and it does not take much imagination to restore the glen to 
its aspect when the abbey was in full glory seven or eight hundred years ago. 
Its founders came hither almost as exiles from York, and began building the 




RIPON AND FOUNTAINS. 



291 



abbey in the twelfth century, but it was barely completed when I bury Vlll. 
forced the dissolution ol the monasteries. It was very rich, and furnished 



rare plunder when the 
immediate grounds of the abbey 
acres, entered by a gate house to the 
church, the ruins of which can stil 
is an old mill alongside the Skej 
and a picturesque bridge crosses tin 
stream, while on a neighboring knol 
are some ancient yews which are be- 
lieved to have sheltered the earliest 
settlers, ami are called the "Seven 
Sisters." Hut, unfortunately, only two 
now remain, 
gnarled and <■ 



twisted, with 
d e c a y i n g 
trunks an< 
falling limbs 
■ — ruins in tact 
that are as 
venerable as 
F o u 
Abbey 
self, 
an i 



eave it. The close or 
lined about eighty 
westward ol the 
be seen. Near by 



Wk ■ ■ " ■ ' 




' l 1§| I ; 

tey are twelve hun 
cars old, and that 
re full-grown trees 

exiles from \ 01 .. 

ied alongside tin 



I (MM AINS rOWEK ASH 1 >i\ I'l 



1 lose, the ruins 
the abbey church are seen in 



292 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE A.XD DESCRIPTIVE. 



butter preservation than the other buildings. The roof is gone, for its wood- 
work was used to melt down the lead by zealous Reformers in the sixteenth 
century, and green grass has replaced the pavement. The ruins disclose a 
noble temple, the tower rising one hundred and sixty-eight feet. In the eastern 




FOUNTAINS HALL. 

transept is the beautiful "Chapel of the Xine Altars" with its tall and slender 
columns, some of the clustering shafts having fallen. For some distance south- 
ward and eastward from the church extend the ruins of the other convent- 
buildings. In former times they were used as a stone-quarry for the neigh- 
borhood, man) ^\ the walls being levelled to the -round, but since the last 
century they have been scrupulously preserved. The plan is readily traced, for 
excavations have been made to better display the ruins. South of the nave 
ot the church was the cloister-court. On one side was the transept and 
chapter-house, and on the other a long corridor supporting the dormitory. 
This was one hundred yards long, extending across the river, and abutting 
against the crags on the other side. South of the cloister-court was the 
refectory and other apartments. To the eastward was a group of buildings 
terminating in a grand house tor the abbot, which also bridged the river. All 



RICHMOND CASTLE. 



29: 



these are now in picturesque ruin, the long corridor, with its vaulted root sup- 
ported by a central row of columns with broad arches, being considered one 
of the most impressive religious remains in England. ( )ne of the chief uses 
to which the Fountains Abbey stone-quarry was devoted was the building, in 
the reign of [ames I., oi a fine Jacobean mansion as the residence for its then 
owner, Sir Stephen Proctor, This is Fountains 1 hill, an elaborate structure 
of that period which stands near the abbey gateway, and to a great extent 
atones, by its quaint attractiveness, tor the vandalism that despoiled the abbey 
to furnish materials for its construction. In fact, the mournful reflection is 
always uppermost in viewing the remains ot this famous place that it would 
have been a grand old ruin could it have been preserved, but the spoilers who 
plundered it for their own profit are said to have discovered, in the fleeting 
character of the riches thus obtained, that ill-gotten gains never prosper. 



RICHMOND CASTLE. 
Proceeding northward from Ripon, and crossing over into the valley of the 
river Swale, we reach one of the most picturesquely located towns of England 

— Richmond, whose great castle is among the 
best English remains ot the Norman era. The 




RK HMOND CASTLE. 

river (lows over a broken and 
rocky bed around the base of a 
cliff, and crowning the precipice 
above is the great castle, magnificent even in decay. It was founded in the 



294 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



reign of William the Conqueror by Alan the Red, who was created Earl of 
Richmond, and it covers a space of about five acres on a rock projecting over 
the river, the prominent tower of the venerable keep being surrounded by 
walls and buildings. A lane leads up from the market-place of the town to 
the castle-gate, alongside of which are Robin Hood's Tower and the Golden 
Tower, the latter named from a tradition of a treasure being once found there. 
The Scolland's Hall, a fine specimen of Norman work, adjoins this tower. The 
keep is one hundred feet high and furnished with walls eleven feet thick, time 
having had little effect upon its noble structure, one of the most perfect Nor- 
man keep-towers remaining in England. There is a grand view from the bat- 
tlements over the romantic valley of the Swale. In the village is an old grav 
tower, the only remains of a Franciscan monastery rounded in the thirteenth 
century, and the ruins of Easby Abbey, dating from the twelfth century, are 
not tar away; its granary is still in use. The valley of the Swale may be 
pursued lor a Ion- distance, furnishing constant displays of romantic scencrv. 
or, it that is preferred, excellent trout-fishing. 



VUKK. 
From the high hills in the neighborhood of Fountains Dale there is a 
magnificent view over the plain ot York, and we will now proceed down 




IMF. MULTANGULAR TOWER AND ST. MARY S ABBEY. 



the valley of the < )use to the venerable city that the Romans called Ebora 
cum, and which is the capital of a county exceeding in extent manv kingdoms 



YORK. 295 

and principalities of Europe. This ancient British stronghold has given its 
name to the metropolis of the New World, but the modern Babylon on the 
Hudson has far outstripped the little city on the equally diminutive Ouse. It 
was Ebrane, the kino- of the Briyantes, who is said to have founded York, but 
so long ago that he is believed a myth. Whatever its origin, a settlement was 
there before the Christian era, but nothing certain is known of it beyond the 
fact that it existed when the Romans invaded Britain and captured York, with 
other strongholds, in the first century of the Christian era. Eboracum was 
made the head-quarters of their fifth legion, and soon became the chief city 
of a district now rich in the relics of the Roman occupation, their dead being 
still found thickly buried around the town. Portions of the walls of Ebora- 
cum remain, among them being that remarkable relic, the tower, polygonal in 
plan, which is known as the Multangular Tower, and which marks the south- 
western angle of the ancient Roman city. Not far away are the dilapidated 
ruins of St. Mary's Abbey, once one of the wealthiest and proudest religious 
houses in the North of England, but with little now left but portions o( the 
foundations, a gateway, and the north and west walls of the nave. This abbey 
was founded in the eleventh century, and it was from here that the exiled monks 
who built Fountains Abbey were driven out. This ruin has been in its present 
condition for nearly two hundred and fifty years. 

For over three centures Eboracum was a great Roman city. Here came the 
emperor Severus and died in 211, his body being cremated and the ashes con- 
veyed to Rome. When the empire was divided, Britain fell to the share of Con- 
stantius Chlorus, and he made Eboracum his home, dying there in 305. Constan- 
tine the Great, his son, was first proclaimed emperor at Eboracum. When the 
Romans departed evil days fell upon York the barbarians destroyed it, and 
it was not till 627 that it reappeared in history, when Eadwine, King of North- 
umbria, was baptized there by St. Paulinus on Easter Day, a little wooden 
church being built for the purpose. Then began its ecclesiastical eminence, 
for Paulinus was the first Archbishop of York, beginning a line of prelates that 
has continued unbroken since. In the eighth century the Northmen began 
their incursions, and from spoilers ultimately became settlers. York pros- 
pered, being thronged with Danish merchants, and in the tenth century had 
thirty thousand population. In King Harold's reign the Northmen attacked 
and captured the town, when Harold surprised and defeated them, killing their 
leader Tostig, but no sooner had he won the victory than he had to hasten 
southward to meet William the Norman, and be in turn vanquished and slain. 
York resisted William, but he ultimately conquered the city and built a castle 
there, but being rebellious the people attacked the castle. He returned and 



>96 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



chastised them and built a second castle on the Ouse ; but the discontent deep- 
ened, and a Danish fleet appearing in the Humber there was another rebellion, 
and the Norman garrison firing the houses around the castle to clear the 
ground for its better defence, the greater part of the city was consumed. 
While this was going on the Danes arrived, attacked and captured both 
castles, slaughtered their entire garrisons of three thousand men, and were 
practically unopposed by the discontented people. Then it was that the 
stalwart Norman William swore " by the splendor of God" to avenge him- 
self on Northumbria, and, keeping his pledge, he devastated the entire coun- 
try north of the Humber. 

York continued to exist without making much history for several centuries, till 
the Wars of the Roses came between the rival houses of York and Lancaster. 
In this York bore its lull part, but it was at first the Lancastrian king who was 
most frequently found at York, and not the duke who bore the title. But after 
Towton Field, on Palm Sunday, March 29, 1 461 , the most sanguinary battle 
ever fought in England, one hundred thousand men being engaged, the news of 
their defeat was brought to the Lancastrian king Henry and Queen Margaret 
at York, and they soon became fugitives, and their youthful adversary, the 
Duke of York, was crowned Edward IY. in York Minster. In the Civil War 
it was in York that Charles I. took refuge, and from that city issued his first 
declaration of war against the Parliament. For two years York was loyal to 
the king, and then the fierce siege took place in which the Parliamentary forces 
ruined St. Mary's Abbey by undermining and destroying its tower. Prince 
Rupert raised this siege, but the respite was not long. Marston Moor saw 
the king defeated, Rupert's troopers being, as the historian tells us, made as 
"stubble to the swords ot Cromwell's Ironsides." The king's shattered army 
retreated to York, was pursued, and in a fortnight York surrendered to the 
Parliamentary forces. The city languished afterwards, losing its trade, and 
developing vast pride, but equal poverty. Since the days of railways, how- 
ever, it has become a very important junction, and has thus somewhat revived 
its activity. 

The walls of York are almost as complete as those of Chester, while its 
ancient gateways are in much better preservation. The gateways, called 
"bars," are among the marked features of the city, and the streets leading to 
them are called "crates." The chief of these is Mickleeate, the highroad lead- 
ing to the south, the most important street in York, and Micklegate Bar is the 
most graceful in design of all, coming down from Tudor days, with turrets and 
battlements pierced with cross-shaped loopholes and surmounted by small 
stone figures ol warriors. It was on this bar that the head of the Duke of 



YORK. 



297 



York was exposed, and the ghastly spectacle greeted his son, Edward IV., as he 
rode into the town after Towton Field. It did not take long to strike off the heads 
of several distinguished prisoners and put them in his place as an expiatory 
offering. Here also whitened the heads of traitors 
down to as late as the last Jacobite rebellion. One^/ 
of the buttresses of the walls of York is the Red 
Tower, so called from the red brick of which it 
is built. These walls and gates are full of in- 
teresting relics of the olden time, and they are 
still preserved to show the line of circumvalla- 




MIL'KLEGATE BAR— THE RED TOWER. 



tion of the ancient walled city. But the chief glory of York is its famous min- 
ster, on which the hand of time has been lightly laid. When King Eadwine 
was baptized in the little wooden church hastily erected for the purpose, he 
began building at the same place, at the suggestion of Paulinus, a large and 
more noble basilica of stone, wherein the little church was to be included. But 
before it was completed the king was slain, and his head was brought to York 
and buried in the portico of the basilica. This church fell into decay, and was 

18 






ENGLAND. PICTCRESOCE AXP DESCRIPTIVE. 



On its - was built a much larger minster. 



burned in the eighth centur\ 

which was consumed in William the Conqueror's time, when the greater part 

o\ \ ork was burned. From its ashes rose the present magnificent minster 




■ 



por: - oh were bu a from the eleventh to the fifteenth century, it 

being completed as we now see it in 1470. and reconsecrated as the cathedral 

^reat pomp in 1472. Its f treas as the shrine of St 

William, the nephew or' K ^ phen. a holy man of singularlv gentle cha- 

ter. \\ hen he came into York it is said the pr - re of the en 

it that it caused the fall of a bridge over the Ouse. but the saint by a 



YORK. 



2Q9 



miracle saved all their lives. The shrine was destroyed at the Reformation, 
and the relics buried in the nave, where they were found in the last century. 
York Minster remained almost unchanged until 1829, when a lunatic named 
Martin concealed himself one night in the cathedral and set fire to the wood- 
work of the choir, 
afterwards escaping; 
through a transept- 
window. The fire 
destroyed the timber 
roofs of the choir and 
nave and the great mVW 
organ. Martin was M 
arrested, and con- 
fined in an asylum 
until he died. The 
restoration cost 
$350,000, and had 
not long been com- 
pleted when some 
workmen accident- 
allv set fire to the 
south-western tower, 
which gutted it, de- 
stroved the bells, and 
burned the root of the 
nave. This mischief 
cost $1 25,000 to re- 
pair, and the south- 
ern transept, which 
was considered un- 
safe, has since been 
partially rebuilt. 

Few English cathe- 
drals exceed York 
Minster in dignity and massive grandeur. It is the largest Gothic church in 
the kingdom, and contains one of the biggest bells, "Old Peter," weighing ten 
and three-quarter tons, and struck regularly everyday at noon. The minster is 
five hundred and twenty four feet long, two hundred and twenty-two feel wide. 
ninety-nine feet high in the nave, and its towers rise about two hundred feet. 




CHOIR OF YORK MINSTER. 



;oo 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



the central tower being two hundred and twelve feet high. Its great charms are 
its windows, most of them containing the original stained glass, some of it 
nearly six hundred years old. The east window is the largest stained-glass 
window in the world, seventy seven by thirty-two feet, and of exquisite design, 
being made by John Thornton of Coventry in 140S, who was paid one dollar 
per week wages and got a present of fifty dollars when he finished it. At the 
end of one transept is the Five Sisters Window, designed by five nuns, each 
planning a tall, narrow sash ; and a beautiful rose- window is at the end of the 
other transept. High up in the nave the statue of St. George stands on one 
side defying the dragon, who pokes out his head on the other. Its tombs are 

among the minster's greatest curi- 
osities. The effigy of Archbishop 
Walter de Grey, nearly six hundred 
and fifty years old, is stretched out 
in an open coffin lying under a su- 
perb canopy, and the corpse instead 
of being in the ground | s overhead 
in the canopy. All the walls are 
full of memorial tablets — a few mod- 
ern ones to English soldiers, but 
most of them ancient. Strange 
tombs are also set in the walls, 
bearing effigies of the dead. Sir 
William Gee stands up with his 
two wives, one on each side, and 
tomb of archbishop Walter de grey, york minster, his six children — all eight statues 
having their hands folded. Others sit up like Punch and Judy, the women 
dressed in hoops, farthingales, and ruffs, the highest fashions of their age. 
Here is buried Wentworth, second Earl of Strafford, and scores of archbishops. 
The body of the famous Hotspur is entombed in the wall beneath the great 
east window. Burke's friend Saville is buried here, that statesman having 
written his epitaph. The outside of the minster has all sorts of grotesque 
protuberances, which, according to the ancient style of church-building, rep- 
resent the evil spirits that religion casts out. Adjoining the north transept, 
and approached through a beautiful vestibule, is the chapter-house, an octag- 
onal building sixty-three feet in diameter and surmounted by a pyramidal 
roof. Seven of its sides are lame stained-glass windows, and the ceiling is a 
magnificent work. 

York Castle occupied a peninsula between the Ouse and a branch called the 




YORK. 



301 



Foss. Of this Clifford's Tower is about all of the ancient work that remains. 
It rises on its mound high above the surrounding- buildings, and was the keep 
of the ancient fortress, constructed according to a remarkable and unique plan, 
consisting of parts of four cylinders running into each other. It dates from 
Edward I., but the entrance was built by Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, its 
governor under Charles I. The interior of the tower was afterwards burned, 
and George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, who was imprisoned 
there, planted a walnut tree within the tower which is still growing. It was in 
the keep of the Norman castle, which this tower replaced, that the massacre 




of the Jews, which grew out 
of race-jealousy at their great 
wealth, occurred in 11 90. On 
March 1 6th the house of Benet, 
the leading Jew in York, was 
sacked by a mob and his wife 
and children murdered. Five hundred of his countrymen then sought refuge in 

£> fa 

the castle, and those who remained outside were killed. The mob besieged the 
castle, led by a hermit from the neighborhood " tamed for zeal and holiness," 
who was clothed in white robes, and each morning celebrated mass and in- 
flamed the fury of the besiegers by his preaching. At last he ventured too 
near the walls, and was brained by a stone. Battering-rams were then brought 
up, and a night's carouse was indulged in before the work of knocking down 
the castle began. Within was a different scene: the fews were without food 
or hope. An aged rabbi, who had come as a missionary from the East, and 
was venerated almost as a prophet, exhorted his brethren to render up freely 
their lives to God rather than await death at the enemy's hands. Nearly all 



30: 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE A.XD DESCRIPTIVE. 



decided to follow his counsel ; they fired the castle, destroyed their property, 

killed their wives and children. 

and then turned their swords 

upon themselves. Day broke, 

and the small remnant who 

dared not die called from the 

walls of the blazing castle that 

they were anxious for baptism 

and " the faith and peace o 

Christ." The)' were promised 

everything, opened the gates, 

and were all massacred. In 

later years York Castle has 

enclosed some well - known 

prisoners, among them Eugene 

Aram, and Dick Turpin, who 

was hanged there. The York 

elections and 

are held in the courtyard. 




THE SHAMBLES. 



CASTLE HOWARD. 



303 



Here Wilberforce, who long represented York in Parliament, spoke in 1784, 
when Boswell wrote of him: "I saw what seemed a mere shrimp mount upon 
the table, but as 1 listened he grew and grew until the shrimp became a whale." 
The York streets are full of old houses, many with porches and overhanging fronts. 
One of the most curious rows is the Shambles, on a narrow street and dating 
from the fourteenth century. A little way out of town is the village ot Holgate, 
which was the residence of Lindley Murray the grammarian. Guy Fawkes is 
said to have been a native of York, and this strange and antique old city, we 
are also credibly assured, was in 1632 the birthplace ot Robinson Crusoe. 



CASTLE HOWARD. 



Starting north-east from York towards the coast, we go along the pretty 
valley of the Uerwent, and not far from the borders ot the stream come to 




CASTI.E HOWARD, SOUTH FRONT. 



that magnificent pile, the seat of the Earls of Carlisle — Castle Howard. More 
than a century ago Walpole wrote of it: "Lord Strafford had told me that 1 
should see one of the finest places in Yorkshire, but nobody hail in formed me 
that 1 should at one view see a palace, a town, a fortified city ; temples on high 



304 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



places ; woods worthy of being- each a metropolis of the Druids ; vales con- 
nected to hills by other woods ; the noblest lawn in the world, fenced by half 
the horizon : and a mausoleum that would tempt one to be buried alive. In 
short, 1 have seen gigantic places before, but never a sublimer one." Castle 
Howard was the work of \ anbrugh, the designer of Blenheim, and in plan is 
somewhat similar, but much more sober and simple, with a central cupola that 
gives it dignity. It avoids many of the faults of Blenheim: its wings are more 
subdued, so that the central colonnade stands out to greater advantage, and 
there are few more imposing conn- ^-"-~=*-\ try houses in England than this 
palace of the Howards. This /*: \^ family are scions of the ducal 



house o( Norfolk, so that "all 
ards." esteemed the bluest 
in their veins. The Earls 
ed from -Belted Will" 
the lord warden of the 
the first Stuart — wh 
worth Castle, twelve 
lisle. His grandson 
restoration ol Charles 
was created the first 
bones lie in York Min- 
thirdearl, who was dep- 
coronation of Queen 
ard. The seventh earl, 
erick, was for eight 
resigning in 1S04 on 
it is said that he was one 
who really won the aflfec- 
that unhappy country. He 




the blood of all the How- 
blood in the kingdom, runs 
of Carlisle are descend- 
— Lord William Howard, 
Marches in the days of 
stronghold was at Xa- 
miles north-east of Car- 
took an active part in the 
II.. and in recompense 
Earl of Carlisle. His 
ster. His grandson, the 
uty earl-marshal at the 
Anne, built Castle How- 
George William Fred- 
years viceroy in Ireland, 
account of ill health; and 
of the few English rulers 
i. tions of the people of 
died soon afterwards. 



Leaving the railway- ™e obelisk, castle howard. ^ tUu , n in the vaUey of 
'he Derwent, and mounting the hills to the westward, a little village is reached 
on the confines o( the park. Beyond the village the road to the park-gates 
passes through meadow-land, and is bordered by beautiful beech trees arranged 
in clusters oi ..bout a dozen trees in each, producing an unusual but most happy 
effect. The gateway is entered, a plain building in a castellated wall — this 
being Walpole's "fortified city" — and. proceeding up a slope, the fine avenue 
ol beeches crosses another avenue of lime trees. Here is placed an obelisk 
erected in honor of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, which also bears an 
inscription telling ol the erection 01 Castle Howard. It recites that the house 



CASTLE lli> WARD. 



;o = 



was built on the site of the old castle of Hinderskelf, ami was begun in 1702 
by Charles, the third Earl of Carlisle, who set up this inscription in [731. The 
happy earl, pleased with the grand palace and park he had created, thus ad- 
dresses posterity on the obelisk: 

" If to perfection these plantations rise, 
It' they agreeably my heirs surprise, 
[his faithful pillar will their age declare 
As long as time these i li.ir.u ters shall - 1 i.ire. 
Here, then, with kind remembrance read his name 
Who for posterity performed the same.'' 

The avenue then leads on past the north front ot the castle, standing in a line 
situation upon a ridge between two shallow valleys. The bed of the northern 
valley has been converted into a lake, while on the southern slopes are beau- 
tiful and extensive lawns and gardens. The house forms three sides of a hol- 
low square, and within, it is very interesting in pictures 
ami ornaments. It is cut up, however, into small rooms 
ami long, chilly corridors, which detract from its 
4 !>ood effect. The entrance-hall is beneath the 
central dome and occupies the whole height 
of the structure, but it is only about 




THE TEMPLE, Willi 1HE MAUSOLEUM IN THE DISTANCE. 

thirty-five feet square, giving a sense of smallness. Frescoes decorate the 
walls and ceilings. The public apartments, which are in several suites open- 
ing into each other and flanked by long corridors, are like a museum, so full 
are they of rare works of art, china, glass, and paintings. Much of the col- 
lection came from the Orleans Gallery. There are also many portraits in black 
and red chalk by Janet, a French artist who flourished in the sixteenth century, 
Some o< the paintings are ot great value, and are by Rubens, Caracci, Cana- 
letti, Tintoretto. Titian, Hogarth, Bellini, Mabuse, Holbein, Lely, Vandyke, 
Reynolds, Gainsborough, and others. The Castle Howard collection is excep- 
tionally valuable in historical portraits. The windows of the drawing-room 
:;:i 



,;,»., 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



look out upon extensive flower-gardens, laid out in rather formal style with 
antique vases and statues. Beyond these gardens is seen a circular temple 
placed upon a knoll, the " mausoleum " which so moved Walpole. Here the 
former owners o( the castle are buried, a constant memento mori to the tenants 
ot the house, though the taste certainly seems peculiar that has made the fam- 
ily tomb the most prominent object in the view from the drawing-room windows. 
Xot tar from Castle 1 toward are the ruins o! Kirkham Priory. A charming 
fragment of this noble church remains in a grassy valley on the margin of the 
Derwent. Hen-, nearly eight hundred years ago, the Augustinians established 
the priory, the founder being Sir Walter I'Espec, one ot the leaders ot the 
English who drove back King David's Scottish invasion at the battle ot the 
Standard, mar Durham. Sir Walter had an only son. who was one day riding 

near the site ot Kirkham when a 
wild boar suddenly rushed across his 
path. The horse plunged and threw 
his rider, who, striking head-foremost 
against a projecting stone, was killed. 
Sir Walter, being childless, determin- 
ed to devote his wealth to the service 
of God, and founded three religious 
houses — one in Bedfordshire, another 
at Rievaulx, where he sought refuge 
from his sorrows, ami the third at 
the place ot his son's death at Kirk- 
ham. Legend says that the youth 
was caught by his foot in the stirrup 
when thrown, and was dragged by 
his runaway horse to the spot where 
the high altar was afterwards located. Sir Walter's sister married into the 
family ot De Ros, among the ancestors of the Dukes of Rutland, and they 
were patrons of Kirkham until the dissolution of the monasteries. Little 
remains ot it: the gate-house still stands, and in front is the base of a cross 
said to have been made from the stone against which the boy was thrown. 
Alongside this stone they hold a " bird-fair " every summer, where jackdaws, 
starlings, and other birds are sold, with a few rabbits thrown in : but the fair 
now is chiefly an excuse tor a holiday. The church was three hundred feet 
long, with the convent-buildings to the southward, but only scant ruins remain. 
Beyond the ruins, at the edge of the greensward, the river glides along under 
a graj stone bridge. At HowsHam, in the neighborhood. Hudson the railway 




GATEWAY, KIRKHAM PRIORY. 



SCARBOROUGH AND WHITBY. 307 



king was born, and at Foston-le-Clay Sydney Smith lived, having lor his friends 
the Earl and Countess of Carlisle of that day, who made their first call in a 
gold coach and got stuck fast in the clay. Here the witty vicar resided, having 
been presented to a living, and built himself a house, which he described 
as " the ugliest in the county," but admitted by all critics to be "one of the 
most comfortable," though located " twenty miles from a lemon." Subse- 
quently Smith left here for Somersetshire. 

SCARBOROUGH AND WHITBY. 
The coast of Yorkshire affords the boldest and grandest scenery on the 
eastern shore of England. A great protruding backbone of chalk rocks 
projects far into the North Sea at Flamborough Head, and makes one of the 
most prominent landmarks on all that rugged, iron-bound coast. This is the 
Ocellum Promontorium of Ptolemy, and its lighthouse is three hundred and 
thirty feet above the sea, while far away over the waters the view is superb. 
From Flamborough Head northward beyond Whitby the coastdine is a suc- 
cession of abrupt white cliffs and bold headlands, presenting magnificent 
scenery. About twenty-three miles north of Flamborough is the " Queen 
of Northern Watering-places," as Scarborough is pleased to be called, where 
a bold headland three hundred feet high juts out into the North Sea for a 
mile, having on each side semicircular bays, each about a mile and a quarter 
wide. At the extreme point of the lozenge-shaped promontory stands the 
ruined castle which named the town Scar-burgh, with the sea washing the 
rocky base of its foundations on three sides. Steep cliffs run precipitously 
down to the narrow beach that fringes these bays around, and on the cliffs is 
the town of Scarborough, while myriads of fishing-vessels cluster about the 
breakwater-piers that have been constructed to make a harbor of refuge. It 
would be difficult to find a finer situation, and art has improved it to the utmost, 
especially as mineral springs add the attractions of a spa to the sea air and 
bathing. The old castle, battered by war and the elements, is a striking ruin, 
the precipitous rock on which it stands being a natural fortress. The Northmen 
when they first invaded Britain made its site their stronghold, but the present 
castle was not built until the reign of King Stephen, when its builder, William 
le Gros, Earl of Albemarle, was so powerful in this part of Yorkshire that it 
was said he was "in Stephen's days the more real king." But Henry II. com- 
pelled the proud earl to submit to his authority, though "with much searching 
of heart and choler," and Scarborough afterwards became one of the royal 
castles, Edward I. in his earlier years keeping court there. It was there that 
Edward II. was besieeed and his favorite Gaveston starved into surrender, and 



3 oS 



! VGLAXD, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



then beheaded on Blacklow Mill in violation of the terms oi his capitulation. 
Scarborough was repeatedly attacked by the Scotch, but it subsequently 
enjoyed an interval of peace until the Reformation. In Wyatt's rebellion his 
friends secured possession of the castle by stratagem. A number of his men. 
disguised as peasants, on market-day strolled one by one into the castle, and 
then at a given signal overpowered the sentinels and admitted the rest oi their 
band. The castle, however, was soon recaptured from the rebels, and Thomas 
Stafford, the leader in this enterprise, was beheaded. From this event is 




SC VRBOROUGH SPA \M> ESP1 \V\M 

derived the proverb of a "Scarborough warning" — a word and a blow, but 
the blow first. In Elizabeth's reign Scarborough was little else but a fishing- 
village, and so unfortunate thai it appealed to the queen tor aid. In the Civil 
War the castle was held by the Royalists, and was besieged lor six months. 
While the guns could not reduce it, starvation did, ami the Parliamentary army 
took possession. Three years later the governor declared lor the king, and 
the castle again stood a five months' siege, finally surrendering. Since then it 
has fallen into decay, but it was a prison-house tor George fox the Quaker, 
who was treated with severity there. A little way down the hill are the ruins 
ot the ancient church ot St. Mary, which has been restored. 

The cliffs on the bay to the south of Castle Hill have been converted into a 
beautifully-terraced garden and promenade. Here, amid flowers ami summer- 
houses and terraced walks, is the fashionable resort, the footpaths winding up 
and down the face of the cliffs or broadening into the gardens, where music 
is provided and there are nightly illuminations. Millions ol money have been 



s (ifiP f iiiiiiiiii!iiitiii i iiiiS 










1 












i|#!':' 



iMI 'I' i,,i| ' 



I '.Mill I'll !■! 









I'M" f '! I ilJlli 



ffliiik 



VGLAND, PICTURESQUE A.XD DESCRIPTIVE. 



expended in beautifying the front of the cliffs adjoining the Spa. which is on 
the seashore, and to which Scarborough owed its original fame as a watering- 
place. The springs were discovered in 1620, and by the middle of the last 
century had become fashionable, but the present ornamental Spa was erected 
only about forty years ago. There is a broad esplanade in front. There are 
two springs, one containing more salt, lime, and magnesia sulphates than the 
other. In tin- season, this esplanade — in fact, the entire front o( the cliffs — 
is full of visitors, while before it are rows of little boxes on wheels, the bath- 
ing houses that are drawn into the water. The surf is usually rather gende, 
however, though the North Sea can knock things about at a lively rate in a 
storm. 

North o\ Scarborough the coast extends, a grand escarpment of cliffs And 
headlands, past Robin Mood's Bay, with its rocky barriers, the North Cheek 
,\nd the South Cheek, to the little harbor o\ another watering-place, Whitby. 
The cliffs here are more precipitous and the situation even more picturesque 
than at Scarborough. The river Esk has carved a deep glen in the Yorkshire 
moorland, and in this the town nestles, climbing the steep banks on either side 
of the river. The ruins o( Whitby Abbey are located high up on the side oi 
tin- ravine opposite to the main part o( the town, and they still present a noble 
if dilapidated pile. The nave fell after a storm in the last century, and a sim- 
ilar cause threw down the central tower in [830. The choir and northern tran- 
sept are still standing, extremely beautiful Early English work ; only fragments 
of other portions bl the abbey remain. This was in olden times the West- 
minster of Northumbria. containing the tombs oi Eadwine and of Oswy, with 
kin^s and nobles grouped around them. It has been over twelve hundred 
years since a religious house was founded at Whitby, at first known as the 
White Homestead, an outgrowth o( the abbey, which was founded by Oswy 
and presided over by the sainted Hilda, who chose the spot upon the lonely 
crags by the sea. The fame of Whitby as a place o\ learning soon spread, 
and here lived the cowherd Cadmon, the first English poet. The Panes 
sacked and burned it, but after the Norman Conquest, under the patronage 
of the Percies, die abbey grew in wealth and fame. Fragments of the monas- 
tery yet remain, And on the hill a little lower down is the parish church, with a 
long flight ot steps leading up to it from the harbor along which the people go, 
and when there is a funeral the cothn has to be slung in order to be carried up 
the steps. \\ hitby is famous for its jet. which is worked into numerous orna- 
ments: this is a variety of fossil wood, capable o\ being cut and taking a high 
polish. It is also celebrated for its production o\ iron-ore. which indeed is a 
product o\ all this part of Yorkshire: while at night, along the valley o\ the 



SCARBOROL GH AND WHITBY. 



l 1 



Tees, not far north of Whitby, the blaze of the myriads ol furnaces light up 
the heavens like the fire of Vesuvius in the Bay of Naples. Among- the tales 
of the abbey is that which 



" Whitby's nuns exulting told, 

How to their house three barons bold 
Mu^t menial service do." 



It appears that three gentlemen — I)e Bruce, De Percy, and Allaston — were hunt- 
ing boars on the abbey-lands in i 159, and roused a fine one, which their dogs 
pressed hard and chased to the hermitage, where it ran into the chapel and 
dropped dead. The hermit closed 
the door against the hounds, and 
the hunters, coming up, were en- 
raged to find the dogs baulked ol 
their prey, and on the hermit's open- 
ing the door they attacked him with 
their boar-spears and mortally 
wounded him. It was not long- 
before they found that this was 
dangerous sport, and they took 
sanctuary at Scarborough. The 
Church, however, did not protect 
those who had insulted it, and they 
were given up to the abbot of 
Whitby, who was about to make 
an example of them when the dy- 
ing hermit summoned the abbot 
and the prisoners to his bedside and granted them their lives and lands. But it 
was done upon a peculiar tenure: upon Ascension Day at sunrise they were 
to come to the wood on Eskdale-side, and the abbot's officer was to deliver to 
each "ten stakes, eleven stout stowers, and eleven yethers, to be cut by you, or 
some of you, with a knife of one penny price;" these they were to take on 
their backs to Whitby before nine o'clock in the morning. Then said the her- 
mit, "If it be full sea your labor and service shall cease: and it low water, 
each of you shall set your stakes to the brim, each stake one yard from the 
other, and so yether them on each side with your yethers, and so stake on each 
side with your stout stowers, that they may stand three titles without removing 
by the force thereof. You shall faithfully do this in remembrance that you did 
most cruelly slay me, and that you may the better call to ( .od for mere)', repent 




WHITBY ABBEY. 



;i 2 



r.l\!K WCTCRESQCE AXD DESCRIPTIVE. 



unfeignedly of your sin>. and do good works. 1 he officer of Eskdale-side 
shall blow, 'Out on you, out on you. out on you lor this heinous crime!'" 
Failure o( this ;trange service was to forfeit their lands to the abbot of 
Whitby. 

Dl K II A.M. 

We have now come into a region oi coal and iron, with mines and furnaces 
in abundance, and tall chimneys in all the villages pouring out black smoke. 
All the country is thoroughly cultivated, and the little streams bubbling over 

the stones at the bottoms of the deep valleys, past sloping green fields ami 
occasional patches ol wood-- where the land is too steep tor cultivation, give 
picturesqueness to the scene. \\ e have crossed over the boundary from York- 
shire into Durham, and upon the very crooked little river Wear there rise upon 
the tops of the precipitous cliffs bordering the stream, high elevated above the 
red tiled roots of the town, the towers o( Durham Cathedral and. Castle. They 
stand in a remarkable position. The Wear, swinging around a curve like an 




GENERAL VIEW OF THE CATHEDRAL ASP CAST1 1 . 



elongated horseshoe, has excavated a precipitous valley out of the rocks. At 
the narrower part of the neck there is a depression, so that the promontory 

around which the river sweeps appears like the wrist with the hand clenched. 
The town stands at the depression, descending the slopes on either side to the 
river, and also spreading upon the opposite banks. The castle bars the act 
to the promontory, upon which stands the cathedral. Thus, almost impregnabl) 



DURHAM. 



fortified, the ancient bishops oi Durham were practicall) sovereigns, and they 
made war as quickly as they would celebrate a mass it their powers were 
threatened, for they bore alike the sword and the crozier. Durham was 
founded to guard the relics of the famous St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, the 
great ascetic oi the early Eng- 
lish Church, distinguished above 
all others lor die severity oi his 
mortifications and his abhor- 
rence ol women. At his shrme, 
we are told, none ol the gentler 
se\ might worship; they were 
admitted to the church, hut in 
die prior) - not even a queen 
could lodge. Queen Philippa 
was once admitted there as a 
guest, luit a tumult arose, and 
she had to flee hall dressed for 
safety to the castle. St. Cuth- 
bert was a hermit to whom the 
sight ol human beings was a 
weariness and the solitude of 
the desert a delight. He was 
horn in Scotland about the 
middle of the seventh cen- 
tury, ol humble origin, and 
passed his early years as a 
shepherd near Melrose. lie N0RMAN """ KW v ,N DURHAM CASTLE - 

adopted an austere life, found a friend in the abbot ol Melrose, and 
ultimately sickened ol an epidemic, his recovery being despaired of. In 
answer, however, to the prayers ol the monks, he was restored to health as by 
a miracle, and became the prior of Melrose. Afterwards he was for twelve 
years prior ol Lindisfarne, an island off the Northumbrian coast, but the 
craving for solitude was too strong to be resisted, and he became a hermit, 
lie went to Fame, a lonely rocky island in the neighboring sea. and, living in 
a hut, spent his life in prayer and lasting, but having time, according to the 
legend, to work abundant miracles. A spring issued from the rock to give 
him water, the sea laid fagots at his feet, and the birds ministered to his wants. 
At first other monks had free access to him, but gradually In- secluded him- 
self in the hut. speaking to them through the window, and ultimately closed 




314 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



even that against them except in cases of emergency. Such sanctity naturally 
acquired wide tame, and alter long urging he consented to become a bishop, 
at first at Hexham, afterwards at Lindisfarne, thus returning to familiar scenes 
and an island home. But his life was ebbing, and after two years' service he 
longed again for his hermit's hut on the rock of Fame. He resigned the 
bishopric, and, returning to his hut, in a tew weeks died. His brethren 
buried him beside his altar, where he rested eleven years ; then exhuming 
the body, it was found thoroughly preserved, and was buried again in a new 
coffin at Lindisfarne. Almost two hundred years passed, when the Danes 
made an incursion, and to escape them the monks took the body, with other 
precious relics, and left Lindisfarne. During tour years they wandered about 
with their sacred charge, and ultimately settled near Chester-le-Street, where 
the body of St. Cuthbert rested for over a century; but another Danish inva- 
sion in 995 sent the saint's bones once more on their travels, and they were 
taken to Ripon. The danger past, the monks started on their return, trans- 
porting the coffin on a carriage. They had arrived at the Wear, when sud- 
denly the carriage stopped and was tound to be immovable. This event no 
doubt had a meaning, and the monks prayed and fasted for three days to learn 
what it was. Then the saint appeared in a vision and said he had chosen this 
spot tor his abode. It was a wild place, known as Dunhelm : the monks went to 
the Dun, or headland, and erected a tabernacle for their ark from the boughs 
of trees while they built a stone church, within which, in the year 999, the body 
was enshrined. This church stood until after the Norman Conquest, when the 
king made its bishop the Earl of Durham, and his palatinate jurisdiction began. 
The present Durham Cathedral was begun in 1093, with the castle alongside. 
As we look at them from the railway-station, they stand a monument of the 
days when the same hand grasped the pastoral staff and the sword — " half 
house of God, half castle 'gainst the Scot." Upon the top of the rocks, which 
are clad in toliage to the river's edge, on the left hand, supported by massive 
outworks built up from halfway down the slope, rises the western face ot the 
castle. Beyond this, above a fringe of trees, rises the lofty cathedral, its high 
central tower forming the apex of the group and its two western towers look- 
ing down into the ravine. The galilee in front appears built up from the depths 
ot the valley, and is supported by outworks scarcely less solid than those ot 
the castle. Durham, more than any other place in England, is a memorial of 
the temporal authority of the Church, uniting the mitre and the coronet. The 
plan of Durham Cathedral is peculiar in having the closed galilee at the west- 
ern end, instead of the open porch as is usual, while the eastern end, which is 
wider than the choir, terminates abruptly, having no Lady Chapel, but being 



DURHAM. 



•5 



in effect cut off, with a gable in the centre and a great rose-window. As the 
galilee overhangs the ravine, the principal entrance to the cathedral is from a 
fine northern porch. To the portal is affixed a large knocker of quaint design, 
which in former days 
was a Mecca lor the 
fugitive, for the shrine 
of St. Cuthbert enjoy- 
ed the right of sanc- 
tuary. When the sup- 
pliant grasped this 
knocker he was safe, 
for over the door two 
monks kept perpetual 
watch to open at the 
first stroke. As soon 
as admitted the sup- 
pliant was required to 
confess his crime, what- 
ever it might be. This 
was written down, and 
a bell in the galilee 
tolled to announce the 
fact that some one had 
sought " the peace of 
Cuthbert;" and he was 
then clothed in a black 
gown with a yellow 
cross on the shoulder. 
After thirty-seven 
days, it no pardon 
could be obtained, 
the malefactor solemn- 
ly abjured his native 
land for ever, and 
was conveyed to the durham cathedral, from an old homestead on the weak. 

seacoast, bearing a white wooden cross in his hand, and was sent out of the 
kingdom by the first ship that sailed. 

The interior of Durham Cathedral is regarded as the noblest Norman con- 
struction yet remaining in England. The arcade, triforium, and clerestory are 




3 i 6 



/-:.Y(//../.\7>. PICTURESQUE AXD DESCRIPTIVE. 



in fine proportion ; the nave has a vaulted rooi ol stone, and the alternate 
columns are clustered in plan, their middle shafts extending from floor to roof. 
These columns are enriched with zigzag, lattice, spiral, and vertical flutings. 
This cathedral, begun in too,;, was nearly two centuries building, and the Chapel 
of Nine Altars, in honor ol' various saints, was erected at the eastern end in 
the twelfth century. Som • of these altars did duty tor a pair ol saints. St. 
Cuthbert sharing the central one with St. Bede, a name only second to his in 
tiie memories oi Durham, so that the nine altars were availed ol to reverence 

sixteen saints. Behind the reredos a 
platform extends a short distance into 
this chapel at a height of six feet above 
the floor. A large blue flagstone is let 
into the platform, with shallow grooves 
on either hand. Here stood St. Cuth- 
bert's shrine, highly ornamented, and 
having scats underneath for the pil- 
grims and cripples who came to pray 
for relict. This being never wanting, 
we are told that the shrine came to be 
so richly invested that it was esteemed 
one of the most sumptuous monuments 
in England, so numerous were the 
offerings and jewels bestowed upon it. 
Among the relics here accumulated was 
the famous Black Rood ol Scotland, the 
prize ol the battle ol Neville's Cross, 
x ' ' ' HVNI ' Ul!l fought near Durham. There were also 

main relics ol saints and martyrs, scraps of clothing ol the Saviour and the 
\ irgin, pieces ol the crown ot thorns and of the true cross, vials containing 
the milk o( the Virgin Mother and the blood of St. Thomas, besides elephants' 
tusks and griffins' claws and eggs, with myriads of jewels. In i ioj. St. Cuth- 
bert's body was deposited in this shrine with solemn ceremonies, and it rested 
there undisturbed until the dissolution of the monasteries, re\ erentially watched. 
day and night, by monks stationed in an adjoining chamber. Tien the shrine 
was destroyed and the treasure-, scattered, the coffin opened, and St. Cuthbert 
buried beneath the slab, so that now the only remnants visible are the furrows 
worn in the adjoining pavement by the feet of the ancient worshippers. Tradi- 
tion tells that the exact position of St. Cuthbert's grrave is known only to three 
Benedictine monks. of whom Scott writes: 




/'/ RHAM. 



M 



'There, deep in Durham's Gothic shadi 
His relics are in secret laid, 

But none may know the plai e, 
Save of his holiest sennits ilircc, 
I >c('|> swum in sol. -inn sei rei y, 
Who share that wondrous grace 



The corpse, however, rests beneath the 
blue slab. In 1827 it was raised, and, 
while other human remains were found, 
there was disclosed beneath them, in a 
coffin, a skeleton vested in mouldering 
robes, and with it various treasures, 
which, with the robes, accord with the 
description of those present in St. 
Cuthbert's coffin when opened in 1104. 
The skeleton was reinterred in a new 
coffin, and the relics, particularly an an- 
cient golden cross and a comb, wire 
placed in the cathedral library. 

In the galilee of Durham Cathe- 
dral, near the south-eastern angle, is a 
plain, low altar-tomb that marks the rest- 
ing-place of St. Bede, commonly known 
as "the Venerable Bede " — a tide whii h 
angelic hands are said to have supplied 
to the line inscribed on his tomb, 
gentle, simple scholar, who spent liis life from childhood in a monaster)' at |ar- 
row, near the mouth of the Wear, and took his pleasure in learning, teaching, 
or writing. I lis great work was the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, 
which occupied many years in compilation, and is still the most trusted his- 
tory of the period of which it treats. I lis literary activity was extraordinary, 
and he produced many other works. He was horn near Durham in 672, and 
died in 735. His devotion to literary work was such that even during his last 
illness he was dictating to an amanuensis a translation of the Gospel of St. 
John into Anglo-Saxon, and upon completing the last sentence requested the 
assistant to place him on the floor of his cell, where he said a short prayer, and 
expired as the closing words passed his lips. He was buried where he had 
lived, at Jarrow, and as the centuries passed the fame of his sanctity and learn- 
ing increased. Then a certain J'dfred conceived the idea of stealing: St. Bede' 




Mil'. 1 III ill 



LING W] ST, 1 a l;ll \ M I A I Hl.liKAL. 



lie was the first English historian, a 



3*8 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



remains for the glorification of Durham. Several times baffled, lie at length 
succeeded, and carrying the precious relics to Durham, they were for a time 
preserved in St. Cuthbert's shrine, but were afterwards removed to a separate 

tomb, which in 1370 was placed in the gal- 
ilee, where it has since remained. At the 
Reformation the shrine was destroyed, and 
St. Bede's hones, like St. Cuthbert's, were 
buried beneath the spot on which the 
shrine had stood. This tomb was opened 
in [831, and many human bones were 
found beneath, together with a gilt ring. 
The bones in all probability were St. Bede's 
remains. Durham Cathedral contains few 
monuments, for reverence lor the solitude 
of St. Cuthbert whom it enshrined ex- 
eluded memorials ot other men during 
several centuries. 

The remains of the Benedictine monas- 
tery to which the care ol these shrines 
was entrusted are south of the cathedral, 
forming- three sides ot a square, ot which 
the cathedral nave was the fourth. Be- 
yond is an open green, with the castle 
s on either hand. From this green the 
castle is entered b\ a gateway with massive doors, but, while the structure 
is picturesque, it is not very ancient, excepting this gateway. It has mostly 
been rebuilt since the twelfth century. This was the palace of the bishops ot 
Durham, of whom Antony Bek raised the power ot the see to its highest point. 
He was prelate, soldier, and politician, equally at home in peace or war. at the 
head of his troops, celebrating a mass, or surrounded by his great officers ot 
state. lie was the first who intruded upon the solitude ot St. Cuthbert by 
being buried in the cathedral. Here lived also Richard of Bury, noted as the 
most learned man of his generation north of the Alps, and the first English 
bibliomaniac. Bishop Hatfield also ruled at Durham, famous both as architect 
and warrior. Cardinal Wolsey lived here when Archbishop of York and his 
quarrel with Henry YIII. resulted in the Durham palatinate beginning to lose 
part of its power, so that in the days of his successor, [^install, it came to be 
the "peace of the king." and not of the bishop, that was broken within its 
borders. Here also ruled the baron-bishop Crewe, who was both a temporal 




Mir GALILEE \M I TOMB OF BEDE. 

on the farther side and old buildin 



DURHAM. 319 

and a spiritual peer, and Bishop Butler, the profound thinker. But the bishops 

live there no longer, their palace being moved to Auckland, while the univer- 
sity is located in the castle. It is the Northern University, first projected in 
Cromwell's time. About a mile to the westward of Durham was fought the 
battle of Neville's Cross in October, 1346. This was a lew months after 
Edward had won the battle: ol Crecy in France, and the King of Scotland, 
taking advantage of the absence ol the English king and his army, swept 
over the Border with forty thousand men, devastating the entire country. His 
chief nobles accompanied him, and to encourage the troops the most sacred 
relic of Scotland, the " Black Rood,'' a cruciiix of blackened silver, was pres- 
ent on the battlefield. This had been mysteriously delivered to David I. on 
the spot in Edinburgh where to commemorate it Holyrood Abbey was after- 
wards founded. But, though King Edward was in France, Queen Philippa was 
equal to the emergency. An army was quickly gathered under Earl Neville, 
and Durham sent its contingent headed by the warlike bishop. The invaders 
drew near the walls ol Durham, and the English army, inferior in numbers, 
aw.iited them. To confront the "Black Rood," the bishop brought into cam]) 
an "ark of God" in obedience to a vision: this was one ol the cathedral's 
choicest treasures, " the holy corpo rax cloth wherewith St. Cuthbert covered 
the chalice when he used to say mass." This, attached to the point ol a spear, 
was displayed in sight of the army, while the monks upon the cathedral towers, 
in full view of the battlefield, prayed for victory lor the defenders of St. Cuth- 
bert's shrine. They fought three hours in the morning, the Scotch with axes, 
the English with arrows; but, as the watching monks turned from prayer to 
praise, the Scottish line wavered and broke, for the banner ol St. Cuthbert 
proved too much for the Black Rood. The King ol Scotland was wounded 
and captured, and fifteen thousand of his men were slain, including many 
nobles. The Black Rood was captured, and placed in the Nine Altars Chapel. 
Afterwards the " corpora.x cloth" was attached to a velvet banner, and became 
one of the great standards of England, being carried against Scotland by 
Richard II. and Henry IV., and it waved over the English army at Flodden. 
When not in use it was attached to St. Cuthbert's shrine. At the Reformation 
the Black Rood was lost, and St. Cuthbert's banner fell into possession of one 
I )ean Whittingham, whose wife, the historian lamentingly says, "being a French- 
woman, did most despitefully burn the same in her fire, to the open contempt 
and disgrace of all ancient relics." A narrow lane, deeply fringed with ferns, 
leads out of Durham over the hills to the westward of the town, where at a 
cross-road stand the mutilated remains of Earl Neville's Cross, set up to mark 
the battlefield, now a wide expanse of smoky country. 






\ :\:\ PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



I I M LEY CASTLE VND NEW! VSTLE. 

Following the Wear northward towards its mouth, at a short distance below 
Durham it p.issrs the site of the Roman cit) of Conde'rum, which hail been 
the resting place ot Si. Cuthbert's bones until tin- Danish invasion drove 
them away, and it is now known as Chester-le- Street. Here, in the old 
church o( St. Mary and St. Cuthbert, is the rude effigy of the saint which once 
surmounted his tomb, ami here also is the "Aisle of rombs," a chain of four- 
tern monumental effigies ot the Lumlevs, dating from Queen Elizabeth's reign. 




1 umle) Castle, now the Earl ot Scarborough's seat (for he too is a Lumley), 
is a short distance outside the town, ow aw eminence overlooking the Wear. 
It elates from tlie time ot Edward 1.. but has been much modernized, the chief 
apartment in the interior being the Great Hall, sixty* by thirty feet, with the Min 
strel Gallery at the western end. Here on the wall is a life size statue of the 
great ancestor o( the Lumleys, Liulph the Saxon, seated on a reel horse. North 
ot this castle, across the Wear, is the Earl o\ Durham's --eat. Lambton Castle, 
a Gothic ami Tudor structure recently restored. 

Still journeying northward, we cross the hills between the Wear ami the 
l\ne. ami come to the New Castle which gives its name to Newcastle-upon- 
1 \ ne. the great coal shipping port. This is a strange looking town, with red- 
tiled roofs, narrow, dingy, crooked streets, and myriads o\ chimneys belching 



LUMLEY CASTLE AND NEWCASTLE. 



321 



forth smoke from the many iron-works. These mills and furnaces are nume- 
rous also in the surrounding country, while the neighborhood is a network of 
railways carrying coal from the various lines to the shipping-piers. But this 
famous city is not all smoke and coal dust: its New Castle is an ancient struc- 



coming down from the reign ol Henry II., ap 



fire, rather dilapidated now 
proached by steep stairways 
up the rock on which the 
keep is perched. It has a 
fine hall, which is used as a 
museum ot Roman relics, and 
from the roof is a grand view 
along the Tyne. This castle 
has a well ninety-three feet 
deep bored in the rock. New- 
castle in its newer parts has 
some fine buildings. Grey 
Street, containing the the- 
atre and Exchange, for a 
space of about tour hundred 
yards is claimed to be the 
finest street in the kingdom. 
In Low Friars Street is the 
old chapel of the Black 
Friars monastery, where Ba- 
liol did homage to Edward 
111. lor the Scottish throne. 
Sir William Armstrong lives 
at [esmond.just outside New- 

ca itle, and 'at Efswick, west '■ LUMLEV CASTLE ' FR0M "" WALK " 

of the cit)\ are the extensive workshops where are made the Armstrong guns. 
The great High Level bridge across the 1 yne \ alley, built by St< phi n ion, with 
a railway on top of a roadway, and one thousand three hundred and thirty- 
seven feet long, is one of the chiel engineering works at Newcastle. George 
Stephenson was born in 17S1 at High Street House, Wylam, mar Newcastle, 
while at Prudhoe Castle is a seat of the Luke ol Northumberland. At Walls- 
end, three miles east of Newcastle, begins the celebrated Roman wall thai 
crossed Britain, and was defended by their legions against incursions by the 
Scots. Its stone-and-turf walls, with the ditch on the north side, can be dis- 
tinctly traced across the island. 

41 




322 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



HEXHAM. 

Ascending the Tyne, we come to Hexham, an imposing town as approached 
by the railway, with the Moat Hall and the abbey church occupying command- 
ing features in the landscape. 
The Moat Hall is a large and 
ancient tower, notable for its 
narrow lights and cornice-like 
range of corbels. The abbey 
church, formerly the cathedral 
of St. Andrew, is a fine speci- 
men of Early English architec- 
ture, of which only the transept 
and some other ruins remain, 
surmounted by a tower rising 
about one hundred feet and 
supported upon magnificent 
arches. Here is the shrine 
of the ancient chronicler, Prior 
Richard, an attractive oratory; 
and the town also produced 
another quaint historian of the 
Border troubles, |ohn of Hex- 
ham. It is an antique place, 
hexham. and almost all of its old build- 

ings bear testimony to the disturbed state of the Scottish frontier in the olden 
time, for not far away are the Cheviot Hills that form the boundary, and in 
which the Tyne takes its rise. Similar evidence is also given in Haltwhistle, 
Hexham's suburb, across the narrow river. 




ALNWICK CASTLE. 

Journeying northward through Northumberland, and following the coast- 
line — for here England narrows as the Scottish border is approached — the road 
crosses the diminutive river Alne. running through a deep valley, and standing in 
an imposing situation on its southern bank is the renowned stronghold of the 
Percies and guardian of the Border. Alnwick Castle. The great fortress, as we 
now see it. was built as a defence against the Scots, and was protected on the 
northward by the river-valley and a deep ravine, which formerly cut it off from 
the village, which is as ancient as the fortress, as its quaint old Pottergate 



Alnwick castle. 



Tower attests. Roman remains have been found on the site, and it was also 
inhabited by the Saxons, the castle at the time of the Norman Conquest being 
held by Gilbert Tysen, a powerful Northumbrian chief. It was then a primitive 
timber fortress in a 
wild region, for the 
earliest ma son r y 
works are Norman, 
and are attributed 
to Tysen's descend- 
ants. Alnwick Cas- 
tle is a cluster of 
semicircular a n d 
angular bastions, 
surrounded bylotty 
walls, defended at 
intervals by towers, 
and enclosing a 
space of about five 
acres. It has three 
courts or wards, 
each defended for- 
merly by massive 

gates, with portcullis, porter's lodge, and a strong guardhouse, beneath which 
was a dungeon. Trap-doors are the only entrances to the latter, into which 

the prisoners were lowered by ropes. From 
the village the entrance to the castle is through 
the barbican, or outer gate, a work of gigantic- 
strength and massive grandeur, which has been 
the scene of many a brave encounter. Near 
by is the Postern Tower, a sally-port adjacent 
to the " Bloody Gap " and "Hotspur's Chair." 
The history of this famous stronghold is practi- 
cally the history of this portion of the realm, for 
in all the- Border warfare that continued for cen- 
turies it was conspicuous. In the reign of Wil- 
liam Rufus it was gallantly defended by Mow- 
bray, Karl of Northumberland, in the memorable siege by the Scots under 
King Malcolm III. The garrison were about surrendering, being almost 
starved, when a private soldier undertook their deliverance. He rode out to the 




ALNWICK. CASTLE, FROM THE LION BRIDGE. 




THE BARBICAN (..VI E. 



324 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AXD DESCRIPTIVE. 



besiegers' camp, carrying the keys of the castle dangling from his lance, and 
presented himself a suppliant before the Scottish king, as if to deliver up the 
keys. Malcolm advanced to receive them, and the soldier pierced him through 

the heart. Mal- 
colm fell dead, 
ami in the con- 
fusion the bold 
trooper sprang 
upon his horse, 
dashed across the 
river, and was 
safe. Malcolm's 
eldest son, Prince 
Edward, ad- 
vanced rashly to 
avenge the king's 
death, and fell 
mortally wound- 
ed from the cas- 
tle. Hammond's 
Ford, named for 
the bold trooper, 
marks the spot 
where he and 
his horse swam 
across the Alne, 
which at the time 
was swollen. In 
memory ot Mal- 
colm, a cross 
stands on the 
spot where he 
was slain, and 
mar by is Mal- 
colm's Well and 




S 



IMF BARBICAN. 



the ruins of St. Leonard's Chapel, built for the unfortunate king's expiation. 
Upon the cross the inscription states that Malcolm fell November 13, 1093, and 
that the original cross, decayed by time, was restored by his descendant. Eliz- 
abeth, Duchess of Northumberland, in 1774. Eustace de Vesci, who built St. 



ALNWICK CASTLE. 



325 



Leonard's Chapel, lived in the days of Henry I. and Stephen, and founded the 
abbey of Alnwick. King David oi Scotland captured the old timber castle there 
in 1 135 on his great invasion of England, and Eustace afterwards built the first 
masonry work of Alnwick Castle, traces of his walls having since been found. 
Alnwick descended to William, son of Eustace, and in 1 1 74, William the 
Lion, returning from an invasion of Cumberland, passed before the castle, and 
was captured and sent a prisoner into England. Alnwick descended to Wil- 
liam's son Eustace, who 
was visited by King 
John in 1 209, and the 
king there received the 
homage of Alexander 
of Scotland. Eustace 
was one of the chief 
barons who wrested 
Magna Charta from 
John, and in the clos- 
ing year of that reign 
met his death from an 
arrow before Barnard 
Castle. Henry III. vis- 
ited Alnwick, and the 
great Edward I. was 
there several times as 
the guest of John de 
Vesci near the close of the thir- 
teenth century. The Barons de 
Vesci soon afterwards became ex- 
tinct, and then the warlike bishop 
of Durham, Antony Bek, came in 
and grabbed the castle. He sole: 
it in 1309 to Henry de Percy, and 
from this dates the rise of the 
great family of the northern Hol- 
der, who have held Alnwick tor 
nearly six centuries, its present 
owner being his descendant, Al- the eastern angle of mi barbicai 

gernon George Percy, Duke of Northumberland, in whose veins Hows the blood 
of so many great families that he can use nine hundred heraldic devices on his 




126 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




E PERCY BEDSTEAD. 

shot through the heart. Henry, the ninth carl, was implicated 
in the Gunpowder Plot, imprisoned in the Tower, and lined 
$250,000. Alter His. release he spent the remainder of his life 
atPetworth; Alnwick was neglected; and the direct 
line of descent ultimately ended with Elizabeth, daugh- 
ter oi the eleventh earl, who married the Duke of 
Somerset in [682. Her grandson, Algernon, became 
Earl of Northumberland, and his daughter, Elizabeth 
Seymour, was the ancestress of the present family, her 
husband being created the first Duke of Northumber- 
land. Alnwick was then a ruin, but he restored it, 
and subsequently, under the direction of the architect 
Salvin, it was completely rebuilt, everything worthy 
of preservation being kept, and the new work being 



armorial bearings, including those 

of many kings and princes. Hen- 
ry de Percy became the leader 
of the Border barons, and, al- 
though living at Alnwick only 
five years, seems to have re- 
built most of the castle, his son 
completing it. The Percies be- 
came the Earls o( Northumber- 
land, and such warlike lives did 
they lead (as, for instance, young 
Henry Percy. "Hotspur") that it 
is noted that Henrv Algernon, the 
fifth earl, was the first of the race 
who died in bed. The next ot 
the line was executed for rebel- 
lion, and the next was beheaded 
at York for conspiring against 
Queen Elizabeth. The eighth 
earl, favoring Maty Queen of 
Scots, was im- 
prisoned in the 
rower, and was 
one day found 
in his chamber 




THE PERCV TROSS. 



ALNWICK CASTLE. 



327 



adapted to the days of the earlier Percies, whose achievements gave the strong- 
hold such world-wide renown. 

This famous castle is full of recollections of the great men who formerly 
inhabited it. The Constable's Tower, remaining mostly in its ancient condi- 
tion, has in an upper 
apartment arms for 
fifteen hundred men, 
the Percy tenantry, 
while in the rooms 
beneath is deposited 
the ancient armor. 
" Hotspur's Chair" 
is the name given 
to a seated recess 
of the Ravine Tow- 
er which was Hot- 
spur's favorite re- 
sort, where he sat 
while his troops ex- 
ercised in the castle- 
yard beneath, and 
where he had an 
admirable lookout 
to discover an ap- 
proaching enemy. 
Through the loopholes on either 
side of the seat in this command- 
ing tower there is an extensive 
prospect over the valley of the 
Alne and to the distant seacoast. 
The " Bloody Gap," another noted site in the castle, is between the Ravine and 
Round Towers. It was the name given to a breach in the wall made by the 
Scots during the Border wars, although the exact time is unknown. According 
to tradition, three hundred Scots fell within the breach, and they were ultimately 
beaten off. Many arrows have been found in the adjacent walls, so located as 
to indicate they were shot from the battlements and windows of the keep when 
the assailants were making this breach. Alnwick Castle was restored by Salvin 
with strict regard to the rules of mediaeval military architecture. When it was 
the great Border stronghold its governor commanded a force of no less than 




CONSTABLE S TOWER. jgj 






ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



two thousand men, who were employed in a complicated system of day and 

night watching to guard against 
forays by the Scots. The day 
watchers began at daylight, and 
blew a horn on the approach of 
the foe, when all men were bound 
on pain of death to respond for 
the general defence. The great 
teature of the restored castle is 
the Prudhoe Tower, built about 
twenty-five years ago. After en- 
tering the barbican, which ad- 
mits to the outer ward, the visi- 
tor passes between the Abbot's 
Tower on the left and the Corner 
Tower and Auditor's Tower on 
the right. Earl Hugh's turreted 
tower also rises boldly from the 
battlements. Passing through 
the middle gatehouse, the keep, 
constructed in the form ot a pol- 
ygon around a court, is seen on 
the right hand, and in the gate- 
way-wall is Percy's famous draw- 
well, with a statue of St. James 
above blessing the waters. Op- 
posite this draw-well is a covered 
drive which leads to the entrance 
of Prudhoe Tower. This tower 
is a magnificent structure, con- 
taining the family and state-apart 
mt-nts, built and decorated in the 
Italian style, and approached by 
a staircase twelve feet wide. It 
was built at enormous cost, and 
alongside is a vaulted kitchen 
of ample proportions, constructed 
in the baronial style, where there 
earl hugh's tower. are sufficient facilities to prepare 




ALXWICK CASTLE. 



329 



dinner for six hundred persons at one time, while the subterranean regions 
contain bins for three hundred tons of coal. Such is this great baronial Border 
stronghold, replete with memories of 
the warlike Percies. From here Hot- 
spur sallied forth to encounter the 
marauding Scottish force which un- 
der Douglas had laid waste England 
as far as the gates of York, and 
almost within the sight of the castle 
is the bloody field of Otterbourn, 
where Douglas fell by Hotspur's 
own hand, though the English lost 
the day and Hotspur himself was 
captured. Again, as war's fortunes 
change, just north of Alnwick is 
Humbleton Hill, where the Scots 
had to fly before England's " dead- 
ly arrow-hail," leaving their leader, 
Douglas, with five wounds and only 
one eye, a prisoner in the hands of 
the Percies. It was from Alnwick's 
battlements that the countess watch- 
ed " the stout Earl of Northumber- the draw-well and norman gateway. 
land" set forth, "his pleasure in the Scottish woods three summer days to 
take" — an expedition from which he never returned. Such was the history for 
centuries of this renowned castle, which is regarded as presenting the most per- 
fect specimen now existing, perhaps in the world, of 
the feudal stronghold of mediaeval days. 

And now let us turn from the castle to the church. 
Almost alongside of it is St. Michael's Church, built with 
battlements, as if prepared as much for defence as for 
worship, and a watch-tower, made evidently for a look- 
out and to hold a beacon to warn of the approach of 
forays. This was one of the regular chain of Border 
beacons. Within the church an old iron-work lectern 
still holds the " Book of the Homilies," while the 
churchyard is full of ancient gravestones. Alnwick Abbey once existed down 
alongside the river, under the protection of the castle, but it has been long 
since ruined, and its remains have served as a quarry for the village buildings 

42 




tf^jY^ad (b ill Jfyk 




330 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQVE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 





<^g\ 



I ECl I UN. ST. MICH \! I S 
CHURCH. 



until little of them remains. Its extensive domains are 
now part ot the Dukes Park, and another contributor 
to this park was Hulne Priory, the earliest Carmelite 
monastery in England, founded in t 240. It stood upon 
a projecting spur ot rising land above die Alne, barked 
by rich woods, but was neither large nor wealthy, as 
the neighboring abbey eclipsed it. The discipline of 
the Carmelites was rigorous. Each friar had a coffin 
tor his cell and slept on straw, while every morning he 
dug a shovelful ot earth tor his grave and crept on his 
knees in prayer. Silence, solitude, and strict fasting 
were the injunction upon all, ami their buildings were 
sternly simple. The porter's lodge and curtain-wall 
enclosing Hulne 1'riorv still stand, ami its outline can 
be traced, though the ruins are scant. Yet this, like 
all else at Alnwick, bears evidence of the troublous 
times on the Bonier. The most important of its re- 
maining buildings is an embattled tower o( refuge from the Scottish invader. 
Its inscription slates that it was built in 
144S hv Sir Henry Percy, fourth Earl of 
Northumberland. Opposite Hulne Pri- 
on is Brislee Hill, which presents the 
most renowned view in Alnwick Park. 
A tower rises among the trees upon the 
crest of the hill from which bonfires now 
blaze on occasions ot festivity. Here, 
over the park, can be seen the castle 
and town, and beyond, to the eastward, 
the sea, with its coast castles as far north 
as Bamborough. The little Coquet Isl- 
and in the distance breaks the expanse 
of blue waters. lo the westward be- 
yond the moors rises the sharp outline 
o( the Scottish Border, the Cheviot 
Hills, running off towards the north-east, 
and containing in their depressions the 
passes through which the Scots used 

to pour when they harried Northern porter's lodge, hulne priory. 

England and roused the Alnwick warrior- to defend their firesides. 




FORD CASTLE AND FLO D DEN FIELD. 



33 1 



FORD CASTLE AND FLODDEN FIELD. 

Northward, past the extremity of the Cheviots, flows the Tweed,-and one of 
its tributaries on the English side is the Till, which drains the bases of those 
sharp hills, that rise nearly twenty-seven hundred feet. Here was Ford Castle, 
and here was fought the terrible Border battle of Flodden in 1 513. Ford Castle 
dated from the time of Edward I., and its proximity to the Border made it the 
object of many assaults. In the fifteenth century it was held by Sir William 




FORI) TOWER, OVERLOOKING FLODDEN. 

Heron, and a few days before the battle of Flodden the Scots, under James IV., 
during Sir William's captivity in Scotland, stormed and destroyed Ford, taking 
captive Lady Heron, who had endeavored to defend it. In the last century 
Ford was restored by the Marquis of Waterford, to whom it had descended, 
so that it now appears as a fine baronial mansion, surmounted by towers and 
battlements, and standing in a commanding situation overlooking the valley 
of the Till, with the lofty Cheviots closing the view a few miles to the south- 
west, their peaks affording ever-varying scenes as the season changes. 

The great attraction of the view, however, is the famous hill of Floddi n, 
about a mile to the westward, crowned by a plantation of dark fir trees, and 
presenting, with the different aspects of the weather, ever-changeful scenery, 



332 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



recalling now the "dark Flodden" and anon the "red Flodden " of the bal- 
ladists. Across the valley from Ford Castle, and at the foot of this fir-crowned 

hill, was fought one of the bitterest contests of the Border. Now, the famous 
battlefield is a highly-cultivated farm and sheep-pasture. James 1Y. of Scot- 
land had unjustly determined to make war upon England, and he set out upon 
it in opposition to the real desire of his countrymen, and even against the 
omens of Heaven, as the people believed. A few days before he departed lor 
his army the king attended St. Michael's Church, adjacent to his stately palace 




THE CHEVIOTS, FROM FORD CASTLE. 

at Linlithgow, when a venerable stranger entered the aisle where the king 
knelt. 1 he hair from his uncovered head flowed down over his shoulders, and 
his blue robe was confined by a linen girdle. With an air of majesty he walked 
up to the kneeling king, and said, "Sire, I am sent to warn thee not to pro- 
ceed in thy present undertaking, for if thou dost it shall not fare well either 
with thyself or those who go with thee." He vanished then in the awe-stricken 
crowd. But this was not the only warning. At midnight, prior to the depart- 
ure ot the troops for the south, it is related that a voice not mortal proclaimed* 
a summons from the market-cross, where proclamations were usually read, 
calling upon all who should march against the English to appear within the 
space of forty days before the court of the Evil One. Sir Walter Scott says 
that this summons, like the apparition at Linlithgow, was probably an attempt 



■ORD CASTLE AND FLODDEN FIELD. 



>3S 



bj 
IV 

th< 



those averse to the war to impose upon the superstitious temper of James 
But the king started at the head of the finest army, and supported by 

■ strongest artillery-train, that had down to that time been brought into the 

field by any Scottish mon- 
arch, lie entered England 
August 2 2(1, without having 
formed any definite plan of 
action. lie wasted two 
days on the Till, besieged 
Norham for a week, when 
it surrendered, and then be- 
sieged Ford. These delays 
"■ave the English time to 
assemble. King |ames, as 
above related, captured 
Lady Heron at Ford. She 
was beautiful and deceitful, 
and soon enthralled the gay 
king in her spells, while all 
the time she was in com- 
munication with the Eng- 
lish. Thus James wasted 
his time in dalliance, and, as 
Scott tells us, 



The monarch o'er the siren hung. 
And beat the measure as she sung, 
And, pressing closer and more near, 
He whispered praises in her ear." 

the time the energetic Karl 
Surrey was marshalling the 
glish hosts, ami, marching 

PLODDEN, FROM THE KING'S BEDCHAMBER, FORD CASTLE. w j th twenty _ s j x thousand men 

northward through Durham, received there the sacred banner of Si. Cuth- 
bert. On September 4th, Surrey challenged [ames to battle, which the 
king accepted against the advice of his best councillors. The Scots had 
become restive under the king's do-nothing policy, and malty of them left the 
camp and returned home with the booty already acquired, [ames selected a 
strong position on Flodden Hill, with both flanks protected and having the 




334 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIIE. 



deep and sluggish waters of the Till flowing in front. Surrey advanced and 
reconnoitred, and then sent the king a herald requesting him to descend into 
the plain, as he acted ungallantly in thus practically shutting himself up in a 
fortress. The king would not admit the herald. Surrey then attempted a 
stratagem. Crossing the Till on the 8th, he encamped at Barmoor Wood, 
about two miles from the Scottish position, concealing his movement from the 
enemy. On the 9th he marched down the Till to near its continence with the 
Tweed, and recrossed to the eastern hank. This, too. was uninterrupted by 
the Scots, who remained strangely inactive, though it is recorded that the chief 
Scottish nobles implored the king to attack the English. The aged Earl Angus 
begged him either to assault the English or retreat. " If you air afraid, Angus," 
replied the king, "you can go home." The master of artillery implored the 
king to allow him to bring his guns to bear upon the English, but James 
returned the reply that he would meet his antagonist on equal terms in a 
fair field, and scorned to take an advantage. Then Surrey drew up his line 
between fames and the Border, and advanced up the valley of the Till towards 
the Scots. The king set tire to the temporary huts on the hillside where he 
had been encamped, and descended to the valley, the smoke concealing the 
movements of each army from the other; but Surrey's stratagem was thus suc- 
cessful in drawing him from his strong position. The English van was led by 
Lord Thomas Howard, Surrey commanding the main body, Sir Edward Stanley 
the rear, and Lord Dacre the reserves. The Scottish advance was led by the 
Earls of Home and Huntley, the king leading the centre, the Earls of Lennox 
and Argvle the rear, and the reserves, consisting of the tlower of the Lothians, 
were under the Earl of Bothwell. The battle began at four in the afternoon, 
when the Scottish advance charged upon the right wing ot the English advance 
and routed it. Dacre promptly galloped forward with his reserves, and restored 
the fortunes o\ the day for the English right. The main bodies in the mean 
time became engaged in a desperate contest. The Scottish king in his ardor 
forgot that the duties o\ a commander were distinct from the indiscriminate 
valor oi a knight, and placed himself in front of his spearmen, surrounded by 
his nobles, who, while they deplored the gallant weakness ot such conduct, dis- 
dained to leave their sovereign unprotected. Dacre and Howard, having 
defeated the Scottish wing in front of them, at this time turned their full 
strength against the flank of the Scottish centre. It was a terrific combat. 
the Scots lighting desperately in an unbroken ring around their king. I he 
battle lasted till night, and almost annihilated the Scottish forces. Of all the 
splendid host, embracing the flower of the nobility and chivalry of the kingdom, 
only a few haggard and wounded stragglers returned to tell the tale. The Eng- 



BAMBOROUGH AND GRACE DARLIXG. 



lish victors lost five thousand slain, and the Scots 
more than twice that number, and among them 
the greatest men of the land. They left on 
the held their king, two bishops, two mitred 
abbots, twenty-seven peers and their sons, and 
there was scarcely a family of any position in 
Scotland that did not lose a relative there. The 
young Earl of Caithness and his entire band 
ol three hundred followers perished on the 
Held. The body of the dead king, afterwards 
found by Dacre, was taken to Berwick and pre- 
sented to his commander, who had it embalmed 
and conveyed to the monastery of Sheyne in 
Surrey. The poetic instincts of the Scots were 
deeply moved by the woes of the fatal field of 

Flodden, and innumerable poems and ballads the crypt, ford castle. 

record the sad story, the crowning work of all being Scott's Marmion. 




BAMBOROUGH AND GRACE DARLING. 
North of Flodden Field, and not far distant, is the Scottish Border, which in 
this part is made by the river Tweed, with Berwick at its mouth. The two 
kingdoms, so long in hot quarrel, are now united by a magnificent railwaj 
bridge, elevated one hundred and twenty-five feet above the river and costing 
$600,000. For miles along the coast the railway runs almost upon the rd^i- 
of the ocean, elevated on the cliffs hitdi above the sea, while off the coast are 
Holy Isle and Lindisfarne. Here St. Cuthbert was the bishop, and its abbe) 
is a splendid ruin, while on the rocky islet of Fame he lived a hermit, encom- 
passing his cell with a mound so high that he could see nothing but the; 
heavens. Two miles from Fame, on the mainland, was the royal city of Beb- 
ban Burgh, now Bamborough, the castle standing upon an almost perpendic- 
ular rock rising one hundred and fifty feet and overlooking the sea. This 
was King Ida's castle, a Border stronghold in ancient times whose massive 
keep yet stands. It is now a charity-school, a lighthouse, ami a life-saving 
station. Thirty beds are kept in the restored castle for shipwrecked sailors, 
and Bamborough is to the mariner on that perilous coast what the convent 
of St. Bernard is to the traveller in the Alps. Here, at this Border haven, we 
will close this descriptive tour by recalling Bamborough's most pleasant mem- 
ory — that of Grace Darling. She was a native of the place, and was lodged, 
clothed, and educated at the school in Bamborough Castle. Her remains lie 



336 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



in Bamborough churchyard under an altar-tomb bearing her recumbent figure 
and surmounted by a Gothic canopy. She is represented lying on a plaited 
straw mattrass and holding an oar. All this coast is beset with perils and 
wrecks have been frequent. The islet of Fame and a cluster of other rocks 
off shore add to the dangers, and on some of them there are lighthouses. One 
of these rocks — Longstone Island — Grace Darling rendered memorable by her 
intrepidity in perilling her life during the storm of September, 1838. Her 
— _ father was the keeper of Longstone Light, 

and on the night of September 6 the For- 
farshire steamer, proceeding from Hull 
to Dundee, was wrecked there. Of 
fifty-three persons on board, thirty-eight 
perished, and on the morning ot the 7th, 
Grace, then about twenty-three years of 
age, discovered the survivors clinging to 
the rocks and remnants of the steamer, 
in imminent danger of being washed off 
by the returning tide. With her parents' 
assistance, but against their remonstrance, 
Grace launched a boat, and with her father succeeded in rescuing nine ot them, 
while six escaped by other means. Presents and demonstrations of admiration 
were showered upon her from all parts of the kingdom, and a public subscrip- 
tion of $3500 was raised for her benefit. Poor Grace died four years later of 
consumption. A monument to her has been placed in St. Cuthbert's Chapel 
on Longstone Island, and upon it is this inscription, from Wordsworth : 




CiKACE DARLING'S MONUMENT. 



' Pious and pure, modest, and yet so brave. 
Though young, so wise— though meek, so resolute. 

" Oh that winds and waves could speak 
Of things which their united power called forth 
From the pure depths of her humanity ' 
A maiden gentle, yet at duty's call 
Firm and unflinching as the lighthouse reared 
On the island-rock, her lonely dwelling-place ; 
Or, like the invincible rock itself, that braves. 
Age after age, the hostile elements, 
As when it guarded holv Cuthbert's cell. 



■All night the storm had raged, nor ceased, nor paused, 
When, as day broke, the maid, through misty air, 
Espies far off a wreck amid the surf. 
Beating on one of those disastrous isles — 
Half of a vessel, half — no more; the rest 
Had vanished '" 



VI. 

LONDON, WESTWARD TO MILFORD HAVEN. 

The Cotswolds — The River Severn — Gloucester — Berkeley Castle — New Inn — Gloucester Cathedral — Lam- 
preys — Tewkesbury; its Mustard, Abbey, and Battle — Worcester; its Battle — Charles II. 's Escape — 
Worcester Cathedral — The Malvern Hills — Worcestershire Beacon — Herefordshire Beacon — Great 
Malvern— St. Anne's Well— The River Wye— Clifford Castle— Hereford— Old Butcher's Row— Nell 
Gwynne's Birthplace — Ross — The Man of Ross — Ross Church and its Trees — Walton Castle — Good- 
rich Castle — Forest of Dean — Coldwell — Symond's Yat — The Dowards — Monmouth — Kymin Hill — 
Raglan Castle — Redbrook — St. Briard Castle — Tintern Abbey— The Wyncliff — Wyntour's Leap — 
Chepstow Castle — The River Monnow — The Golden Valley — The Black Mountains— Pontrilas Court — 
Ewias Harold — Abbey Dore — The Scyrrid Vawr — Wormridge — Kilpeck — Oldcastle — Kentchurch — 
Grosmont — The Vale of Usk — Abergavenny — Llanthony Priory — Walter Savage Landor — Capel-y- 
Ffyn — Newport — Penarth Roads— Cardiff — The Rocking-Stone — Llandaff— Caerphilly Castle and its 
Leaning Tower — Swansea — The Mumbles — Oystermouth Castle— Neath Abbey — Caermarthen — Ten- 
by — Manorbeer Castle — Golden Grove — Pembroke — Milford — Haverfordwest — Milford Haven — Pictou 
Castle — Carew Castle. 

GLOUCESTER. 

JOURNEYING westward from the metropolis and beyond the sources of 
the Thames, let us mount to the tops of the Cotswold Hills, in which they 
take their rise, and look down upon the valley of the noble Severn River 
beyond. We have already seen the Severn at Shrewsbury, Wenlock, and 
Bridgenorth, and, uniting with the classic Avon, it drains the western slopes 
of the Cotswolds, and, flowing through a deep valley between them and the 
Malvern Hills, finally debouches through a broad estuary into the British 
Channel. There is much of interest to the tourist along the banks and in 
neighborhood of this well-known river. As we stand upon the elevations 
of the Cotswolds and look over " Sabrina fair," the lower part of its valley 
is seen as a broad and fertile plain, and the Severn's "glassy, cool, translucent 
wave," as the poet has it, flows through a land of meadows, orchards, and 
cornfields, with the hills of the Forest of Dean rising on the western horizon. 
Alongside the river is the cathedral city of Gloucester, the depot for a rich 
agricultural region and for the mining wealth of Dean Forest, the Berkeley 
Canal leading from its docks for sixteen miles down the Severn until the deep 
water of the estuary is reached. The Romans early saw the importance of this 
place as a military post, and founded Glevum here, upon their Ermine Street 

43 337 



00° 



VG1 \ND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



road, as an outpost fortress upon the border-land oi the Silures. Fragments 
oi tessellated pavements, coins, and other relics from nine to time exhumed 
attest the extent o\ the Roman settlement. When the Britons succeeded the 
Romans, this settlement became gradually transformed into Gleawecesore, 
forming part of the kingdom of Mercia, and in the seventh century /Ethelred 
bestowed it upon Osric, who founded a monaster)' here, Athelstan died here 
in 941, and a few years afterwards the Danes, who overrun and devastated 




GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL, FROM ["HE SOUTH 

almost the whole of England, burned the town and monastery. The history 
of Gloucester, however, was without stirring incidents, excepting an occasional 
destructive fire, until the siege took place in the Civil War, its people devoting 
themselves more to commerce than to politics, and in the early part oi the 
si venteenth century engaging extensively in the manufacture of pins. Glou- 
cester, however, gave the title to several earls and dukes, generally men noi 
much envied; as, for instance, Richard Crookback, who sou from Gloucester 
the order for the murder of his nephews, the young princes, in the rower. 
But the town never took kindly to him, and warmly welcomed Richmond on 
his avenging march to Bosworth Field. The siege of Gloucester was made by 
King Charles's troops, the citizens having warmly espoused the cause of the 
Parliament and strongly fortified their city, mounting guns for its defence which 
they got from 1 ondon, A polygonal line of fortifications surrounded Glou- 
cester, which was then much smaller than now. and the bastions came down to 
tin' river, with outlying works to defend a small suburb on the opposite hank. 



GLOUCESTER. 339 



The Cavaliers were in great strength in Western England, and the malignity of 
the Gloucester pin-makers seriously embarrassed them, On August 10, 1643, 
the siege began with a summons to surrender, which the authorities refused. 
Parts of the suburbs were then burned, and next morning a bombardment began, 
red-hot balls and heavy stones being plentifully thrown into the place, knock- 
ing the houses into sad havoc, but in no wise damping the sturdy courage 
of the defenders. They replied bravely with their cannon and made repeated 
sorties, which inflicted serious damage upon the besiegers. After over three; 
weeks of this sport, the Royalists shot an arrow into the town, September 3, 
with a message in these words : "These are to let you understand your god 
Waller hath forsaken you and hath retired himself to the Tower of London ; 
Essex is beaten like a dog: yield to the king's mercy in time; otherwise, if we 
enter perforce, no quarter for such obstinate traitorly rogues. — From a Well- 
wisher." This conciliatory message was defiantly answered in a prompt reply 
signed " Nicholas Cudgelyouwell ;" and two days later, Prince Rupert having 
suffered a defeat elsewhere, the Cavaliers abandoned the siege. Charles II., 
upon his restoration, took care to have himself proclaimed with great pomp at 
Gloucester, and also took the precaution to destroy its fortifications. The cas- 
tle, which had stood since the days of the Norman Conquest, then disappeared. 
The west gate, the last remains of the walls, was removed, with the old bridge 
across the Severn, in 1809, to make room for a fine new bridge. This structure 
is chiefly known through a humorous connection that Thackeray has given it 
with King George III. That monarch made a royal visit to Gloucester, and in 
his lectures on the " Four Georges " Thackeray says: "One morning, before 
anybody else was up, the king walked about Gloucester town, pushed over 
Molly the housemaid with her pail, who was scrubbing the doorstep:;, ran up 
stairs and woke all the equerries in their bedrooms, and then trotted down to 
the bridge, where by this time a dozen of louts were assembled. 'What! is 
this Gloucester new bridge?' asked our gracious monarch; and the people 
answered him, 'Yes, Your Majesty.' — 'Why, then, my boys, let's have a hur- 
ray!' After giving them which intellectual gratification he went home to break- 
fast." 

The town is quaint and picturesque, but the buildings generally are modern, 
most of them dating from the days of good Queen Anne, but they exhibit 
great variety in design. The most noted of the older Gloucester houses is 
the "New Inn," on Northgate Street. After the murder of Edward II. at 
Berkeley Castle, not far from Gloucester, where he had been imprisoned in a 
dungeon in the keep, in 1327, his remains were brought to the abbey church 
at Gloucester for interment, a shrine being raised over them by the monks. 



34Q 



\ \ND. PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



at th 



["he king was murdered with fiendish cruelty. Lord Berkeley at the a 
would willingly have protected him, but he fell sick ; and one dark September 
nio-ht Edward was given over to two villains named Gurney and Ogle. Hie 
ancient chronicler says that the "screams and shrieks of anguish were heard 
even so far as the town, so thai many, being awakened therewith from their 
sleep, as they themselves confessed, prayed heartily to God to receive Ins soul, 
for they understood by those cries what the matter meant." The king's shrine 

in l iloucester naturally at 
tracted main' pilgrims, and 
the New Inn was built 
about 1450 for their ac 
comniodation. It is a brick- 
and-timber house, with cor- 
ridors leading to the cham- 
bers running along the 
sides of the inner court 
and reached 1>\ outside 
stairways, as was the com- 
mon construction ol houses 
1 |> u hi i c entertainment 
three or tour centuries ago, 
The inn remains almost as 
it was then. ha\ ing been 
but slightly modernized. 
Most of the pilgrims to the 
shrine brought offerings with them, and heme the pains taken for their accom 
modation. The usual tale is told about a subterranean passage connecting 
this inn with the cathedral. New Inn is enormously strong and massive, and 
covers a broad surface, being constructed around two courtyards. 

Gloucester has many churches in proportion to its size — in fact, so many that 
"as sure as God is in Gloucester " used to be a proverb. Oliver Cromwell, 
though the city had stood sturdily by him, differed with this, however, for a 
saying of his is still quoted, that "there he more churches than godliness in 
Gloucester." In later days the first Sunday-school in England was opened 
here, and just outside the city are the fragmentary remains ol the branch of 
I lanthony Priory to which the monks migrated from the Welsh Border. The 
chief attraction of Gloucester, however, is the cathedral, ami the ruins o\ the 
Benedictine monastery to which it was formerly attached. The cathedral is ol 
considerable size, being lour hundred and twenty feet long\ and is surmounted 




\l W INN. Gl 0U( 1 ST1 K 



GLOUCESTER. 34' 



by a much-admired central tower. The light and graceful tracery oi its par 
apets and pinnacles gives especial character to the exterior oi Gloucester 
Cathedral, and when the openwork tracery is projected against the red glow 
of sunset an unrivalled effect is produced. This tower is two hundred and 
twenty-five feet high, and tonus an admirable centre to the masses of buildings 
clustered around it. The monastery, founded by Osric in the seventh century, 
stood on this site, but after the Danes burned it a convent was built, which 
passed into the hands of the Benedictines in 1022. < >ne of these monks was 
the " Robert of Gloucester" who in 1272 wrote in rhyme a chronicle of Eng- 
lish history from the siege of Troy to the death of Henrj II. Their church 
was repeatedly burned and rebuilt, but it was not until the shrine oi Edward 
II. was placed in it that the religious establishment throve. I he rich harvest 
brought by the pilgrims to this shrine led to the reconstruction of the older 
church, by encasing the shell with Perpendicular work in the lower part and 
completely rebuilding the upper portion. This was in the fourteenth century, 
and by the close of the next century the cathedral appeared as it is now seen. 
Entering the fine southern porch, we are ushered into the splendid Norman 
nave bordered by exceptionally high piers, rising thirty feel, and surmounted 
by a low triforium and clerestory. The design is rather dwarfed by thus 
impoverishing the upper stories. The choir has an enormous east window, 
made wider than the choir itself by an ingenious arrangement of the walls; 
and this retains most of the old stained glass. The choir has recently been 
restored, and in the old woodwork the seat of the mayor is retained opposite 
the throne of the bishop. On the floor an oblong setting of tiles marks the 
grave of William the Conqueror's son Robert, who died at Cardiff, and whose 
monument stands in an adjoining chapel. The Lady Chapel is east of the 
choir, and has a "whispering gallery" over its entrance. Beneath the choir 
is the crypt, antedating the Norman Conquest, and one of the remains oi the 
original church of the Benedictines. On the south side of the choir is the 
monument to Edward II., standing in an archway. The effigy is of alabaster, 
and is surmounted by a beautiful sculptured canopy. The cloisters north of 
the nave are most attractive, the; rooi being vaulted in fan-patterns oi great 
richness. There can still be seen along the north walk of these cloisters the 
lavatories for the monks, with the troughs into which the water flowed and the 
recesses in the wall above to contain the towels. Beyond the cloisters are 
the other remains of the monastery, now generally incorporated into houses. 
Gloucester has been a bishop's see since the reign of I bury VIII., and one 
of its bishops was the zealous Reformer who was martyred in sight of his 
own cathedral — John Hooper: his statue stands in St. Mary's Square, where 



34- 1 



ENGL. I .\7>. PICTl 'RESQ / E . I Nl > DESC RIPTIl 'E. 




Queen Mary had him burned as a heretic. Gloucester also has its Spa, a cha- 
lybeate spring recently discovered in the south-eastern suburbs, but the town is 

chiefly known to fame 
abroad by its salmon 
and lampreys. The 
lamprey is caught in 
the Severn and potted 
for export, having 
been considered a 
dainty by the epicures 
of remote as well as 
modern times. h 
was in great request 
in the time of King 
John, when we are 
monks' lavatory, Gloucester cathedral. told " the men of 

Gloucester gave forty marks to that king to have his good will, because they 
regarded him not as they ought in the matter ot their lampreys." This was 
the favorite dish of Henry 1. ( I>eauclerc), and over-indulgence in lamprevs 
finally killed him. It was the custom until 1836 for the corporation of Glou- 
cester to send every Christmas to the sovereign "a lamprey pie with a raised 
crust." 

TEWKESBURY. 

Let us ascend the valley ot the Severn, and in the centre of its broad plain, 
at the confluence of the Avon, find another great religious house in the smaller 
but equally noted town of Tewkesbury. All around are rich meadows, and 
lure, away from the hills, was the ideal site for a monastery according to the 
ancient notion, where the languor of the gentle air prevented the blood flow- 
ing with too quick pulse. The Avon, spanned by an old arched bridge, washes 
one side of the town ; the massive abbey-tower rises above a fringe of foliage 
and orchards, while on the one hand the horizon is bounded by the steep Cots- 
wolds, and on the other by the broken masses of the Malverns. Close to the 
town, on its western verge, flows the Severn, crossed by a fine modern iron 
bridge. Tewkesbury is known to fame by its mustard, its abbey, and its battle. 
The renown ot the Tewkesbury mustard goes back for at least three centuries: 
as " thick as Tewkesbury mustard " was a proverb of Falstaff s. That old-time 
historian Fuller says of it, "The best in England (to take no larger compass) 
is made at Tewkesbury. It is very wholesome for the clearing of the head, 



TEW KESBURY. 



343 



moderately taken.'' But, unfortunately, the reputation of Tewkesbury for this 
commodity has declined in modern times. 

The history of Tewkesbury Abbey comes from mist)- antiquity, and it is 
thought by some to have been named " Dukes-borough " from two ancient 
Britons, Dukes Odda and Dudda, but others say it commemorates a missionary 
monk named Theoe, who founded a little church there in the seventh century. 
Brictric, King' of Wessex, 
was buried within its walls 
in the ninth century, and, 
like Gloucester, it suffered 
afterwards from the ravages 
of the Danes. But it flour- 
ished subsequently, and in 
the clays of William Rufus 
the manor was conferred 
upon Fitz-Hamon, an in- 
fluential nobleman, under 
whose auspices the present 
abbey was built. Nothing- 
remains of any prior build- 
ing-. The church was be- 
gun in iioo, but the builder 



was killed in battle before it 
was completed. It is in the 
form of a cross with short 
transepts, and a tower rising 
from the centre. The choir 
was originally terminated by 
apses, which can still be traced, and there were other apses on the eastern side 
of each transept. While the outlines of most of the abbey are Norman, the 
choir is almost all of later date. The western front has the singular feature 
of being almost all occupied by an enormous and deeply-recessed Norman 
arch, into which a doorway and tracer)- were inserted about two hundred 
vears ago, replacing one blown down by a storm in 1661. This abbey 
church was dedicated in 112;,, and the services were almost the last diocesan 
act of Theulf, bishop of Worcester. One of the dedication ceremonies was 
quaint. As the bishop came to the middle of the nave, we are told that he 
found part of the pavement spread with white wood-ashes, upon which he 
wrote the alphabet twice with his pastoral staff — first the Greek alphabet from 




TEWKESIiCKY. 



344 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



north-east to south-west, and then the Latin, from south-east to north-west, 
thus placing them in the form oi a cross. He signified by this ceremony that 
all divine revelation was conveyed by the letters of the alphabet, and that the 
gospel comprehended under the shadow of the cross men of all races and all 
languages. The time had been when at such consecrations three alphabets 
were written — the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin — as the title on the cross had 
been written in these three tongues, but the Hebrew was early discontinued, 
"probably." writes Blunt, the historian of Tewkesbury Abbey, "because even 
bishops might not always be able to manage their Alpha Beta in that character." 




RY ABBEY. 

The best views of the abbey are from the south-east, and the interior is re- 
garded as more remarkable than the exterior. The nave is of singular gran- 
deur, its round Norman columns being exceptionally lofty. The triforium is 
stunted, and consists merely of two pairs of small arches, above which the ribs 
of a noble fretted roof expand, so that it appears as if the roof were imme- 
diately supported by the columns of the nave. The choir is short and hex- 
agonal, being only sixty-six feet from the reredos, and is surrounded by a 
number of polygonal chapels, as at Westminster Abbey, with which it appears 
quite similar in plan. The Lady Chapel, originally at the east end, has been 
entirely destroyed. There are several monuments of great interest in these 



TEWKESBURY. 



545 



King-maker," and 



chapels, some of them in the form of chantries — being exquisite cages in stone- 
work — within which are the tombs of the founders. Here lie some of the chief 
nobility of England who in the days of the Plantagenets were the lords of 
Tewkesbury — the Beauchamps, Nevilles, De Clares, and Despensers. Fitz- 
Hamon's tomb was not erected until the fourteenth century. Here lie Clar- 
ence and his wife, Isabel, the daughter of Warwick the 
also the murdered son of Henry 
VI., who was " stabbed in the field 
by Tewkesbury," with other vic- 
tims of that fatal battle. The re- 
mains of the cloisters lie to the 
south of the abbey, and beyond is 
the ancient gateway, of rather un- 
usual plan. 

The battle of Tewkesbury, which 
sealed the fate of the Lancastrian 
party in England, was fought in 
1 47 1 upon the Bloody Meadow, 
then called the Vineyard, just out- 
side the town and to the southward 
of the abbey. The Lancastrian 
line was soon broken, and the 
fight became practically a slaugh- 
ter, as the defeated party were 
forced back upon the town and 
into the very abbey itself. Many 



of the fugitives sought refuge in 
the church, and the Yorkists fol- 
lowed them, striking down their victims in the graveyard, and even within the 
church-doors. The abbot, taking in his hand the sacred Host, confronted Kino- 
Edward himself in the porch and forbade him to pollute the house of God with 
blood, and would not allow him to enter until he had promised mercy to those 
who had sought refuge inside. This clemency, however, was short-lived, for 
in the afternoon the young Prince of Wales, Henry VI. 's son, was brought 
before Edward and murdered by his attendants. Shakespeare represents 
Edward as dealing the first blow with a dagger, but the truer story seems to 
be that, enraged by a haughty answer from the young prince, he struck him in 
the face with his gauntlet, which the bystanders accepted as a signal for the 
murder. Two days afterwards a number of the chief captives were executed. 

44 




THE CHOIR OF TEWKESBURY ABBEY. 



546 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE A.XD DESCRIPTIVE. 



WORCESTER. 

Still ascending the valley of the Severn, we come to Worcester, another of 
the military stations of the Romans, established to hold this rich, fertile, and 
coveted region. Its cathedral, and. in fact, much of the town, stand upon an 
elevated ridge, with the river flowing at the base. To this day Worcester retains 
the plan of the original Roman camp, but it does not seem to have made at 
that time much mark in history. The Britons captured it, and named the place 
Wigoma Ceaster, and it was afterwards incorporated into Mercia. In the 
eleventh century a castle was built near the Severn, and the earlier kings of 
England were frequently its residents. Ring John had great veneration for 




WORCESTER CATHEDRAL, FROM THE SEVERN. 

St. Wulstan, the founder of Worcester Cathedral, and he was laid to rest 
beside that saint's shrine. Worcester suffered the usual penalties of the towns 
in the Severn Valley : it was destroyed by the Danes and burned by Hardi- 
canute, and in the twelfth century town, castle, and cathedral were all consumed 
by a hre supposed to be caused by the Welsh. It was partially burned three 
times subsequently in that century, and in Henry III.'s reign Simon de Mont- 
fort and his son were defeated and slain on the neighboring hills. The final 
conflagration was caused by Owen Glendower in 1401, after which quieter 



WORCESTER. 347 



times came until the Civil War. Worcester was zealous for King Charles, 
and suffered from two sieges, being the last city that held out for the royal 
cause. It was the scene of Charles II. 's first and unsuccessful effort to reeain 
the English crown. He had been acknowledged and crowned by the Scots, 
and attempted the invasion of England. His army marched down through the 
western counties, while Cromwell kept between him and London. He reached 
Worcester, when Cromwell determined to attack him, and marched the Par- 
liamentary army to the outskirts of the city, encamping on Red Hill, where he 
intrenched. Sending part ot his troops across the Severn, on September 3, 
1 65 1, Cromwell attacked Worcester on both sides, leading the van of the 
main body in person. Young Charles held a council of war in the cathedral- 
tower, and when he descended to personally lead the defence, the fight had 
become hot; and it lasted several hours, Cromwell describing the battle as 
being "as stiff a contest as I have ever seen." The Scots were outnumbered 
and beaten, but would not surrender, and the battle did not close till nightfall. 
Then it was found that, while Cromwell had suffered inconsiderable loss, the 
royal forces had lost six thousand men and all their artillery and baggage. 
Charles fought bravely, and narrowly avoided capture. A handful of troops 
defended Sidbury Gate, leading in from the suburb of the town where the 
battle had been hottest. Charles had to dismount and creep under an over- 
turned hay-wagon, and, entering the gate, mounted a horse and rode to the 
corn-market, where he escaped with Lord Wilmot through the back door of 
a house, while some of his officers beat off Cobbett's troops who attacked the 
front. Upon this house, built in 1557, is still read the inscription, "Love God; 
honor the king." Then getting out of the city, Charles escaped into the wood 
of Boscobel, and after a series of romantic adventures managed to reach the 
seacoast in Sussex, and on October 15th embarked at Shoreham for France. 
It was in this battle that Worcester earned the motto it still bears of " Civitas 
fidelis." 

Worcester's most conspicuous building is the cathedral, its tower being 
prominently seen from miles around. Its western front overlooks the Severn, 
and the ground-plan is an elongated rectangle with small double transepts. 
The choir and portions of the nave are the original work, most of the remain- 
der being restored. St. Dunstan's successor, Bishop Oswald, built the first 
cathedral here, and during the progress of the work he met an unexpected 
check. The ancient chronicler tells us that a large stone became immovable, 
and despite every exertion could not be brought to its proper place. " St. 
Oswald," he continues, "after praying earnestly, beheld ' Ethiopem quendam ' 
sitting upon the stone and mocking the builders : the sign of the cross removed 



348 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



him effectually." No portion of this original building remains, the earliest parts 
of tin 1 present cathedral dating from Bishop Wulstan's time, in the eleventh 
century. Wulstan was a man of piety and simplicity who retained his see 
after the Norman Conquest. The increasing number of monks in the monas- 
tery compelled the 
removal of Oswald's 
church to make more 
room, and Wulstan re- 
gretfully built the new 
cathedral, saying he 
was pulling down the 
church of a far holier 
man than himself. 
Miracles were frequent 
at Wulstan's tomb, and 
in 1203 he was canon- 
ized. His church was 
unlucky — several times 
partly burned, and once 
the central tower fell, 
and afterwards the two 
western towers during 
storms ; but it was al- 
ways repaired, and in 
1218, St. Wulstan's re- 
mains were removed to 
a shrine near the high 
altar, and the cathedral 
rededicated in the 
presence of Henry III. 
The interior view is 
striking, the arches of the nave, triforium, and clerestory being in harmonious 
proportions. In the middle of the choir is King [ohn's monument, the effigy 
representing him crowned and in royal robes, holding the sceptre and the 
sword, the point of the latter inserted in the mouth of a lion on which his feet 
rest. We are told that in 1797 the coffin was found beneath the tomb, with 
the apparel partially mouldered, but the remains all gone. There are several 
other monuments in the cathedral — one a mural slab commemorating Anne, 
wife of Izaak Walton, "a woman of remarkable prudence and of the primitive 




THE CIHIIK OF WORCESTER CATHEDRAI 



WORCESTER. 



349 



piety." The crypt beneath the choir is a remnant of Wulstan's work, and the 
old doors of the cathedral, dating from the thirteenth century, are preserved 
there: fragments of human skin are still seen upon them, reputed to have been 
that of a man who was flayed for stealing a holy bell. In the north walk of 
the cloisters is the grave-slab famous for bearing the shortest and saddest 
inscription in England, " Miserrimus :" it is said to cover one of the minor 
canons, named Morris, who declined to take the oath of allegiance to William 




RUIN'S OF THE GUE.STEN HALL. 



III. and had to be supported by alms. Around the cloisters are the ruins of 
the ancient monastery, the most prominent fragments being those of the Gues- 
ten Hall, erected in 1320. Access to the cathedral close, on the south-eastern 
side, is obtained through an ancient gateway called the Edgar Tower, one ot 
the earliest structures connected with the cathedral, which is still fairly pre- 
served: it was evidently intended for defence. The bishops of Worcester 
present an unbroken line for twelve centuries, including, in later days, Latimer 
the martyr, Prideaux, and Stillingfleet, It was in Worcester Cathedral, on Oc- 
tober 23, 1687, that James 11. touched several persons to cure the scrofula 



35Q 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AXD DESCRIPTIVE. 



or king's evil ; and when William 111. afterwards visited Worcester he yielded 

to sundry entreaties to touch sufferers, but in doing so said, "God give you 

better health and more 
sense !" These were about 
the last "touchings" known 
in England. Upon James 
II. 's visit he attended mass 
at the Catholic chapel, and 
was waited upon to the door 
by the mayor and corpora- 
tion officers, but they de- 
clined to enter a Roman 
Catholic place of worship. 
A minute in the corpora- 
tion proceedings explains 
that they passed the time 
until the service was over 
in smoking and drinking 
at the Green Dragon Inn, 
loyally charging the bill to 
the city. Worcester in an- 
cient times was famous for 
close in Worcester. its cloth, but other places 

have since eclipsed it. It is now noted mainly for gloves, fine porcelain, and 

Worcester Sauce. 




THE MALVERN HILLS. 

The broad valley of the Severn is bounded on its western side by the 
boldly-rising Malvern range of hills, which are elevated so steeply and so 
suddenly above the plain that they produce an impression of size and height 
much greater than the)' really possess, and are more imposing than many 
summits that far surpass them in magnitude. There is reason, therefore, in 
Mrs. Browning's poetic expression: 

" Malvern Hills, for mountains counted 
Not unduly, form a row." 

The Malvern range is a ridge running nearly north and south, with a series of 
smooth, steep summits, the breadth of the range being barely half a mile. 
Their slopes are of turf and furze, often as steep as the pitched roof of a 



THE MALVERN HILLS. 35 I 



house, with crags projecting here and there. The chief summits are the North 
Hill, rising eleven hundred and fifty-one feet above the Severn, the Worcester- 
shire Beacon, fourteen hundred and forty-four feet, and the Herefordshire 
Beacon, thirteen hundred and seventy feet. Their highest parts are covered 
with verdure, and nearly seventeen hundred different varieties of plants have 
been found on the range. These hills stand as one of Nature's bulwarks, an 
outwork of the mountain-region of Wales, dividing an upland from a lowland 
district, each furnishing totally different characteristics. They were the bound- 
ary between the Romans and the Britons, and their summits present some 
remarkable remains of ancient fortifications. The Worcestershire Beacon rises 
directly above the town of Great Malvern, and south of it a fissure called the 
Wyche sinks down to about nine hundred feet elevation, enabling a road to be 
carried across the ridge. Some distance south of this there is an even lower 
depression, by which the high-road crosses from Worcester to Hereford. Then 
to the southward is the Herefordshire Beacon, and beyond it several lower 
summits. These two gaps or gateways in this natural wall of defence are 
both guarded by ancient camps of unusual strength and still in good preserva- 
tion. One of these camps on the Herefordshire Beacon, with ditches, ramparts, 
and a keep, encloses forty-four acres. Also on top of the ridge are found 
traces of the ditch that was dug to mark the dividing-lines between the hunt- 
ing-grounds of the bishops who ruled on either hand in Hereford and in Wor- 
cester. The bishops in the olden time appear to have been as keen sportsmen 
as the nobles. 

The town of Great Malvern, on the eastern slope of the hills, is elevated 
five hundred and twenty feet, and is in high repute as a watering-place. It 
had its origin in a priory, of which there still remains the fine old church, with 
a surmounting gray tower and an entrance-gateway which have escaped the 
general ruin of the monastery. Within this ancient church the ornaments of 
some of the old stalls in the choir are very quaint, representing a man leading 
a bear, a dying miser handing his money-bags to the priest and doctor, and 
three rats solemnly hanging a cat on a gallows. The priory was the nucleus 
about which gathered the town, or, properly speaking, the towns, for there are 
a series of them, all well-known watering-places. Great Malvern has North 
Malvern alongside it and Malvern Link on the lower hills, while to the south- 
ward are Malvern Wells and Little Malvern, with West Malvern over on the 
Hereford side of the ridge. They are aggregations of pretty villas, and the 
many invalids who seek their relief are drawn about in Bath-chairs by little 
donkeys. The view from the Worcestershire Beacon is grand, extending over 
a broad surface in all directions, for we are told that when the beacon-fires 



352 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



that were lighted upon this elevated ridge warned England ot the approach 

of the Spanish Armada, 

" Twelve f.iir counties saw the blaze 
From Malvern's lonely height." 

The advantages the Malvern range otters as a sanitarium are pure air and 

pure water. The 
towns are ele- 
vated above the 
logs ot the val- 
leys, and the 
rainfall is small, 
while both win- 
ter's cold and 
summer's heat 
are tempered. 
St. Anne's \Y< 11 
and the Holy 
Well are the 
great sources 
ot pure water. 
The latter is at 
Malvern Wells, 
and the former 
st. anne's well. on the side of 

the Worcestershire Beacon, at an elevation of eight hundred and twenty feet. 

Both are slightly alkaline, but St. Anne's Well is the most famous, and is taste? 

fully enclosed. Water-cure establishments abound here, and with such air, 

such water, and such magnificent scenerv it is no wonder that the Malvern 

Hills are among the most popular resorts of England. 




T H E R I V E R WYE. 

Erom the top of the Malvern Hills the western view looks clown upon the 
attractive valley of the river Wye, a famous stream that takes its rise in the 
mountains of Wales, and after flowing through Herefordshire and Monmouth- 
shire falls into the Severn. Rising on the south-eastern side of Plynlimmon, a 
group of three mountains elevated nearly twenty-five hundred feet, it is one 
of five rivers whose sources are almost in the same spot, but which flow in 
opposite directions — the Llyffnant. Rheidol, Dyfi, Severn, and Wye. For miles 



THE RIVER WYE. 



~> c i 



it is a mountain torrent, receiving 
oilier streams, ami flowing east- 
ward through Radnor and Breck- 
nock, where it is the resort of art- 
ists and anglers. It passes near 
the burial-place of Llewellyn, the 
last native Prince ol Wales, who 
died in i 282, and then, bordered 
by railway and highway, comes 
down through picturesque ravines 
past Hay and its ruined castle in a 
beautiful glen at the base of the 
Black Mountains, which rise ab- 
ruptly from its southern bank. 
Near Hay, and overlooking the 
river, are the ruins of Clifford Cas- 
tle, which was the birthplace of 
" Fair Rosamond." Here the Wye 
enters Herefordshire, the valley 





oithouse where nell gwvnne was bokn. 

a:, 



HUTCHERS' ROW. HEREFORD. 

broadens, and the stream gradually leads 
us to the ancient town of Hereford, stand- 
ing chiefly on its northern bank and in a 
delightful situation. This city does not 
lay claim to Roman origin, but it was 
nevertheless one of the fortified outposts 
of England on the border of Wales, and 
was often the scene of warfare. It was 
walled and vigorously defended, while 
hostelries and chapels were erected for 
the accommodation of pilgrims and other 
visitors. Hereford contained the shrines 
of St. Ethelbert and St. Thomas Cante- 
lupe, but its chief relic of antiquity is the 
house that remains of the "old Butchers' 
Row," which was originally a large and 
irregular cluster of wooden buildings 
placed nearly in the middle of the locality 



354 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



known as the High Town. All but one of these houses have been taken 
down, and the one that remains shows window-frames, doors, stairs, and Moors 
all made of thick and solid masses of timber, apparently constructed to last 
tor ages. A shield over one of the doors bears a boar's head and three bulls' 
heads, having two winged bulls for supporters and another bull for a crest. 
On other parts are emblems of the slaughterhouse, such as ropes, rings, and 




H 



HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. 

axes. Thus did our English ancestors caricature the imaginary dignity of 
heraldry. This attractive old house is a relic of the days of James I. Nell 
Gwynne was born in Hereford, and the small cottage in Pipe Lane which was 
her birthplace has only recently been pulled down. It was a little four-roomed 
house, and an outhouse opening on the Wye, which was standing in poor 
Nelly's days, remains. Hereford Cathedral is a hue Xorman structure, begun 
in the eleventh century and recently restored. The most imposing portion 
of the interior is the north transept, which was built to receive the shrine of 
Cantelupe. The remains of the Black briars' monastery are in the Widemarsh 



THE MAX OF ROSS. 



6 5 3 



suburb. They consist chiefly of an inter- 
esting relic ot that religious order, an hex- 
agonal preaching-cross standing on a flight 

of steps and open on each side. 1 lere- 
ford Castle has disappeared, but its site is 
an attractive public walk overlooking the 
Wye, called the Castle Green. 



TIN'. MAX OF ROSS. 
The Wye llovvs on through a fairly open 
valley, with broad meadows extending from 
the bases of the wooded hills to the river. 
On approaching Ross the meadows contract, 
the hills come nearer together, and the new 
phase of scenery in the glen which here 
begins makes the Wye the most beautiful 
among English rivers. Ross stands at the 
entrance to the glen, built upon a sloping hill 
which descends steeply to the Wye. It was the Ariconium of the Romans, 
and has been almost without stirring history. It has grown in all these cen- 
turies to be a town of about four thousand five hundred population, with con- 
siderable trade, being the centre of a rich agricultural section, and is chiefly 




OLD NAVE, HEREFORD CATHEDRAL. 




ROSS HR1DGE. 



known to fame as the home of Pope's " Man of Ross." This was John Kyrle, 
who was born at the village of Dymock, not far away, May 22, 1637. He was 
educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where they still preserve a piece of plate 
which he presented as a parting gift. He afterwards settled at Ross, and lived 
to an advanced age, dying November 1 1, 1724. He was described as "nearly 



JD 



S6 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



six feet high, strong and lusty mack', jolly and ruddy in the face, with a large 
nose." His claim to immortality, which has made his name a household 




word 1 



'o, 



M s 



HOCSE OF THE " MAN OF ROSS. 

n England, cannot better be described than by quoting some of 
lines : 

"Who living with woods yon mountain's sultry brow? 
From the dry sod who bade the waters Row ':.... 
Whose causeway parts the vale with shady rows? 
Whose seats the weary traveller repose? 
Who taught that heaven-directed spire to ris 
'The Man of Ross,' each lisping babe replies. 
Behold the market-place with poor o'erspread ! 
The Man of Ross divides the weekly bread: 
He feeds yon almshouse, neat, but void of state. 
Where age and want sit smiling at the gate : 
Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans blest, 
The young who labor, and the old who rest. 
Is any sick? The Man of Ross relieves. 
Prescribes, attends, the med'eine makes and gives. 



THE MAX OF ROSS. 



357 



Is there a variance ? Enter but his door, 

Balked are the courts and contest is no more 

Thrice happy man ! enabled to pursue 

What all so wish, but want the power to do ! 

Oh say what sums that generous hand supply, 

What mines to swell that boundless charity? 

Of debts and taxes, wife and children, clear, 

That man possessed— five hundred pounds a year!" 

It is not often that a man can do so much to benefit his townsfolk out of the 
modest income of #2500 a year; and not only Pope, but Coleridge also, has 
found this a theme for verse. The house in which the " Man of Ross" lived 
is on the left-hand side of the market-place, and still stands, though much 
changed. It is now a drug-store and a dwelling. The floors and panelling of 
several of the chambers are of oak, while a quaint opening leads to a narrow 
corridor and into a small room, which tradition says was his bedroom, where 
he endured his last and only 
illness, and died. The bed- 
room looks out upon his 
garden, divided like the 
house, one-half being con- 
verted into a bowling-green. 
The surrounding walls are 
overrun with vines and bor- 
dered by pear trees. On 
the other side of the mar- 
ket-place is the town-hall, 
standing on an eminence 
and facing the principal 
street, which comes up irom 
the river-bank. This hall 
is somewhat dilapidated, 
though still in daily use, and 
is supported on crumbling 
pillars of red sandstone. 
Ross is chiefly built upon 
the slope of a hill, termi- 
nating in a plateau, one side 
of which the Wye, flowing through a horseshoe bend, has scarped out into a 
river-cliff. Upon this plateau stands the little Ross Church with its tall spire, 
a striking building in a singularly fortunate situation. The churchyard, with 




MAKKLT-PLACE, ROSS. 



358 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



an adjoining public garden called the Prospect, 
The church is , cruciform, and its spire the 




mm 



! 

ROSS CHURCH. 

as is usually the case, that his good deeds 
excited more enthusiasm in strangers than 
anion- the people whom he benefited. 
Within the church, in front of a window, 
two trees are growing, another indirect 
and posthumous memorial of the " Man 
of Ross." They appeared about fifty 
years ago, and the story is that a rector 
of the parish had cut down a tree on the 
outside of the wall which the " Man of 
Ross" had originally planted, whereupon 
these suckers made their appearance with- 
in the building and asserted the vitality of 
the parent tree. They shot up against the 
seat which is said to have been his favor- 
ite one, and though at first objected to, 
the church-wardens bowed to the inevita- 



extends to the brow of the cliff, 
landmark for the surrounding 
It was built in the fourteenth 
r , but is without architectural fea- 
tures. The " Man ot 
Ross " rests within its 
walls, buried near the 
altar under a blue slab. 
His memory is the most 
cherished remem- 
brance of Ross, and is 
mellowed as the ages 
pass. His fireside- 
chair stands in the 
chancel, and the} - also 
show a book contain- 
ing his autograph. A 
tablet to his memory is 
inserted in the wall, 
erected by a distant 
relative, Lady Betty 
Dupplin, for it is said. 




TIIF. TREKS IN Ross CHURCH. 



GOODRICH CASTLE AND SYMOND'S VAT. 



359 



ble, and they are now among the most prized relics within the church. The 
public garden (the Prospect) adjoining the churchyard was another benefaction 
of the " Man of Ross," and with some private houses and a hotel it crowns the 
summit of the plateau. Here the hand of the "Man of Ross" again appears 
in a row of noble elms around the churchyard which he is said to have planted, 
some of them of great size. The view from the Prospect, however, is the 
town's chief present glory. It stands on the brink of the river-cliff, with the 
Wye sweeping at its feet around the apex of the long horseshoe curve. Within 
the curve is the grassy Oak Meadow dotted with old trees. On either hand 
are meadows and cornfields, with bits of wood, and the Welsh hills rise in the 
distance. 



GOODRICH CASTLE AND SYMOND'S YAT. 
The Wye flows on through its picturesque glen towards Monmouth, the 
water bubbling with a strong current. A raised causeway carries the road 
to Monmouth over 
the meadows. On 
the right hand are 
the ruins of Wilton 
Castle, built in Ste- 
phen's reign, 




.-JVjJ-^- 



m& 



Rl INS III' GOODRICH CASTLE. 



burned in the Civil War. Tourists go by small boats floated on the cur- 
rent down the Wye, and the boats are hauled back on donkey-carts, little 



;m> 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



trains oi them being seen creeping along- the Monmouth road. From 
Ross to Monmouth the river Hows through a region of rolling- hills, with 
abrupt declivities where the rapid stream has scarped the margin into cliffs 
and ridges. The valley narrows, and the very crooked river (lows through 
bewitching scenery until by another great horseshoe bend it winds around 
the ruins of Goodrich Castle, reared upon a wooded cliff, with Goodrich 
Court near by. The latter is a modern imitation of a mediaeval dwelling, 
constructed according to the erratic whims of a recent owner. This Court 
once contained the finest collection of ancient armor in England, but most of 




A HF.ND OF THE RIVER WYE. 



it has been transferred to the South Kensington Museum. Goodrich Castle 
was once a formidable fortress, and it dates from the reign of Stephen. Here 
it was that in the days of Edward the Confessor, "entrenched in a stockade of 
wood. Goderic de Winchcomb held the ford" over the Wye, and gave the place 
his name. It grew in strength until the Civil War. when Sir Richard Lingen 
held it for the king. This was a memorable contest, lasting six weeks, during 
which the besiegers belabored it with the best battering-cannon they could pro- 
cure, and used up eight) barrels of gunpowder voted by Parliament for the 
purpose. Then the defenders demanded a parley, but the assailants, angry 
at being so long baulked of their prey, insisted upon unconditional surrender. 
Afterwards the castle was demolished, but the fine old keep remains in good 
preservation, commanding a grand view over the winding valley of the Wye 
and to the Forest of Dean in one direction and the Malvern Hills in another. 
The ruins are of a quadrangular fortress, and within the courtyard Words- 
worth once met the child whose prattle suggested his familiar poem, "We are 
Seven." Little now remains o\ Qbodrich Priory, but the parish church of the 



GOODRICH CASTLE AND SYMOND'S VAT. 



361 



village can be seen afar off, and contains a chalice presented by Dean Swift, 
whose grandfather, Thomas Swift, was once its rector. 

Below Goodrich this wayward river makes an enormous loop, wherein it 
goes wandering about for eight miles and accomplishes just one mile's dis- 
tance. Here it becomes a boundary between the two Bickner villages — Welsh 
Bickner and English Bickner. To the eastward is the Forest of Dean, cover- 
ing over twenty-six thousand acres, and including extensive coal-pits and iron- 
works, the smoke from the latter overhanging the valley. The river-channel 
is dug deeply into the limestone rocks, whose fissured and ivy-clad cliffs rise 
high above the 
water, varied 
by occasional 
green mead- 
ows, where cat- 
tle are feeding. 
The river 
bends sharply 
to the west- 
ward past the 
crags at Cold- 
well, and then 
doubles back 
upon its former 
course. This 
second bend is 
around a high IN symond's vat. 

limestone plateau which is the most singular feature of the beautiful glen. 
The river sweeps in an elongated loop of about five miles, and returns to within 
eighteen hundred feet of its former channel, and the plateau rises six hundred 
feet to the apex of the headland that mounts guard over the grand curve — the 
famous Symond's Yat. On the top are the remains of an ancient British fort, 
and rocks, woods, fields, and meadows slope down to the river on almost every 
side, making a bewitching scene. It was here that the Northman Vikings in 
91 1 fortified themselves after they landed on the Severn and penetrated through 
the Forest of Dean. They were led by Eric in quest of plunder, and captured 
a bishop, who was afterwards ransomed for two hundred dollars. Their foray 
roused the people, who besieged the Vikings, forming a square encampment 
which commanded their fortification, and remains of which are still visible. 
They drove the Vikings out with their hail of arrows, and punished them so 
10 




362 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



terribly that the defile down which they fled is still known as " The Slaughter." 
The remnant who escaped afterwards surrendered on condition of being allowed 
to quit the country, and their experience had such wholesome influence that no 
Vikings came that way afterwards. 

The Wye next bends around two bold limestone hills known as the Great 
and the Little Doward, each surmounted by ancient encampments, where 
arrowheads and other relics, not to forget the bones of a giant, have been 
found. In fact, bones seem to be a prolific product of this region, for -the 
"bone-caves" of the Dowards produce the relics of many animals long van- 
ished from the kingdom, and also disclose rude weapons of flint, showing that 
the primitive races of men were here with them. Beds of stalagmites, sand, 
and gravel covered these relics, deposited by an ancient stream which geol- 
ogists say flowed three hundred feet above the present bed of the Wye. Then 
we come to the richly-wooded deer-park of the Leys with its exquisite views, 
and here the wildly romantic scenery is gradually subdued into a more open 
valley and a straighter stream as the Wye flows on towards Monmouth. The 
parts of the river just described are not more renowned for their beauty, though 
considered the finest in England, than for their salmon, and we are told that 
three men with a net have been known to catch a ton of salmon in a day, 
while the fishery-rights are let at over $100,000 annually. 

MONMOUTH. 
The beautiful valley, with its picturesque scenery, expands somewhat as the 
Wye approaches its junction with the river Monnow and flows through a suc- 
cession of green meadows. Here, between the two rivers on a low spur, a 
prolongation of their bordering hills, stands Monmouth, its ancient suburbs 
spreading across the Monnow. From the market-place, the chief street of 
the town leads down to these suburbs, crossing over an old-time bridge. The 
town has its church and the ruins of a priory, while perched on a cliff over- 
looking the Monnow is its castle, displaying rather extensive but not very 
attractive remains, fohn of Monmouth is said to have built this castle in the 
reign of Henry III. Here also lived at one time John of Gaunt and his son, 
Harry Hereford, who afterwards became Henry IV., and the latter's son, Harry 
Monmouth, was born in this old castle, growing up to become the wild "Prince 
Hal," and afterwards the victor at Agincourt. They still show a narrow win- 
dow, with remains of tracery, as marking the room in which he first saw the 
light. Thus has " Prince Hal " become the patron of Monmouth, and his statue 
stands in front of the town-hall, representing the king in lull armor, and in- 
scribed, " Henry V., born at Monmouth August 9, 1387," but it is not regarded 



MOXMOUTH. 







MONMOUTH BRIDGE. 

as remarkable for its artistic finish. The remains ot the old priory are utilized 
for a school. It was (bunded by the Benedictines in the reign of Henry I., and 
in it lived Geoffrey of Mon- 
mouth, a familiar author in 
days when books were few. 
He was Bishop of St. Asaph's ^ 

in the year 1 152, and wrote 
his History of the Britons, 
wherein he combined all the 
fables of the time so ingeni- 
ously with the truth that they 
became alike history. Out 
of his imagination grew the 
tale of the "Round Table" 
and its knights. 

Upon the old bridge cross- 
ing the Monnow stands an 
ancient gate-house, con- 
structed in the style that 
prevailed in the thirteenth 
century, but it is doubtful 
if this was a military work, 
its probable use being the gate on monmouth bridge. 




364 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



collection of tolls on the produce brought into the town. It is pierced with 
postern arches for the foot-passengers, and still retains the place lor its port- 
cullis. All around the Monmouth market-place are the old houses where the 
celebrated Monmouth caps were made that were so popular in old times, and 

of which Fluellen spoke when 
he told Henry Y., " If Your 
Majesty is remembered ot it, 
the Welshmen did good ser- 
vice in a garden where leeks 
did grow, wearing leeks in 
their Monmouth caps." Mon- 
mouth is not a large town, 
having but six thousand in- 
habitants, but it takes a mayor, 
four aldermen, two bailiffs, 
and twelve councillors to gov- 
ern them, and its massive 
county-jail is a solid warning 
to all evil-doers. From the 
summit of the lofty Kymin 
Hill, rising seven hundred 
feet on the eastern side of 
the town, there is a grand 
panorama over the valley ot 
the Wye. This hill is sur- 
mounted by a pavilion and 
temple, built in 1800 to re- 
cord the naval victories of 
England in the American 
wars. Farther down the 
raglan castle valley was the home of the 

late Lord Raglan, and here are the ruins of Raglan Castle, built in the fifteenth 
century. For ten weeks in the Civil War the venerable Marquis of Worces- 
ter held this castle against Fairfax's siege, but the redoubtable old hero, who 
was aged eighty-four, ultimately had to surrender. 




TINTERN ABBEY AM) CHEPSTOW CASTLE. 
The Wye at Monmouth also receives the Trothy River, and the continence 
ot the three valleys makes a comparatively open basin, which, however, again 



TINTERN ABBEY AND CHEPSTOW CASTLE. 



^65 



en a short distance below the town. Wild 



narrows into another romantic 
woods border the steep hills, and the Wye flows through the western border 
of the Forest of Dean, an occasional village attesting the mineral wealth by its 
blackened chimneys. Here, below Redbrook, was the home of Admiral Rooke, 
who captured Gibraltar in 1704, and farther down are the ruins of the castle 
of St. Briard, built in the days of Henry I. to check Welsh forays. Here lived 
the lord warden of the Forest of Dean, and for three centuries every Whit- 
Sunday they held the annual "scramble" in the church. It appears that a tax 
of one penny was levied on every person who pastured his cattle on the com- 
mon, and the amount thus raised was expended for bread and cheese. The 
church was crowded, and the clerk standing in the gallery threw out the edibles 
to the struggling congregation below. The railway closely hugs the swiftly- 
flowing river in its steep and narrow glen as we pass Offa's Dyke and Chair 
and the Moravian village of Brockweir. Here the line of fortifications crossed 
the valley which the king of Mercia constructed to protect his dominions. The 
valley then slightly expands, and the green sward is dotted by the houses of 
the long and scattered village of Tintern Parva. The river sharply bends, and 
in the glen on the 
western side stand 
the ruins of the far- 
famed Tintern Ab- 
bey in the green 
meadows at the 
brink of the Wye. 
The spot is well 
chosen, for nowhere 
along this celebrated 
river has Nature in- 
dicated a better place 
for quiet, heavenly 
meditation not un- 
mixed with earthly 
comforts tintern abbey. 

Walter de Clare founded Tintern Abbey in 11 31 for the Cistercian monks, 
and dedicated it to St. Mary. It was built upon an ancient battlefield where a 
Christian prince of Glamorgan had been slain by the heathen, but ot the build- 
ings erected by De Clare none now exist, the present remains being of later 
date, and the abbey church that is now in ruin was erected by Roger Bigod, 
Duke of Norfolk. It is a magnificent relic of the Decorated period. The 




366 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 

vaulted roof and central tower are gone, but the arches which supported the 
latter remain. The row of columns on the northern side of the nave have 
fallen, with the clerestory above them, but the remainder of the structure has 
suffered little damage. The western front, with its noble window and exquis- 
ite tracery, is very fine. Ivy and ferns overrun the walls and form a coping, 
while green sward has replaced the pavement, so that it would be difficult to 
imagine a more enchanting ruin, and as such Tintern is renowned the world 
over. Lord Houghton has written: 

"Tho men who called their passion piety. 
Ami wrecked tins noble argosy oi faith, — 
They little thought how beauteous could be death, 
How fair the face of time's aye-deepening sea. 
Nor arms that desolate, nor years that flee, 
Nor hearts that fail, can utterly deflower 
This grassy floor of sacramental power 
Where we now stand communicants." 

Tintern Abbey is two hundred and twenty-eight feet long. It had no triforium, 
and the clerestory windows are rather large. The great east window was even 
more elaborate than the western, but all of it has fallen excepting the central 
mullion and the stronger portion of the tracery which branches out on either 
side from it. There yet remain in the building a few tiles with heraldic emblems, 
some broken monuments, and some heaps ol choice carvings, shattered as they 
fell, but afterwards collected and piled against the walls. The Duke of Beau- 
fort, to whose estate it belongs, has done everything possible to arrest decay, 
and all is kept in perfect order. A door leads out of the southern transept to 
a few fragments of buildings in the fields on that side, but most ot the convent 
was on the northern side, where its ruins surround a grass-grown quadrangle. 
A cloister once ran around it; on the eastern side is the chapter-house, with 
the dormitory above, and on the western side the remains of the abbot's lodg- 
ings and the truest-chambers have been converted into cottages. The refec- 
tory and guest-hall are to the northward, with ruins of the octagonal columns 
that supported the roof. Such is this magnificent relic of the Cistercians, and 
yet it is but one of seventy-six abbeys that they possessed before Henry VIII. 
dissolved them. From the high-road down the valley of the Wye, which skirts 
the green meadows along its southern face, is the best view of the abbe)', and 
the ruddy gray stone ruins, with the grassy fields and the background ot 
wooded hills beyond the broad river, make up a picture that cannot easily be 
forgotten. Yet Tintern is most beautiful of all when the full moon rising over 
the eastern hills pours a Hood of light through the broken east window to the 
place where once stood tin- high altar. 



TINTERN ABBEY AND CHEPSTOW CAST/./:. 367 

The valley of the Wye again broadens, and the river flows in graceful curves 
through the meadows, guarded on either hand by cliffs and woods. The river 
is here a tidal-stream, having a rise of twelve feet, so that it is now a strong 
current, flowing full and swilt between grassy banks, and anon is a shrunken 
creek, fringed by broad borders of mud. The railway on the eastern bank 
runs over the meadows and through occasional tunnels in the spurs of the 
cliffs. The high-road climbs the hill on the western bank, known as the Wyne- 
cliff from the top of which there is a grand view over the valley and to the 
southward towards and beyond Chepstow. This cliff rises nine hundred feet 
above the river, and is the great monarch of a realm of crags that poke up their 
heads in all directions. Across the Wye, on a tongue of land projecting into 
the stream, Sir John Wyntour in the Civil War, with one hundred and eighty 
Royalists, hastily built a fort to command the river. Before their intrench- 
ments were complete the enemy in superior force attacked and completely 
routed them ; but twenty escaped, and Wyntour, cutting his way through the 
assailants' lines, took refuse in the beetline cratrs behind known as the Tiden- 
ham Rocks. The cavalry pursued him, when he forced his horse down a part 
somewhat less precipitous than the rest, reached the bank in safety, and escaped 
by swimming his horse over the river. The precipice is still known as Wyn- 
tour's Leap. Below, the Wye flows through Chepstow, with iron bridges span- 
ning it to carry the road and railway across. The main part of the town on 
the western part is built upon a slope that in places descends somewhat rapidly 
to the river. Parts of the old walls are still preserved, strengthened at intervals 
by round towers. Chepstow has its ruined church, once a priory, within which 
Henry Marten the regicide was buried after twenty years' imprisonment in 
the castle. 

The great point of interest is Chepstow Castle, built here to command the 
Wye, and standing in a fine situation on the edge of the river in a naturally 
fortified position. Upon the land-side deep trenches and outworks protect it, 
while a grassy meadow intervenes between its gateway and the Wye, that here 
makes a sharp curve. To get the castle in between the crags and the river, it 
was constructed upon a long and narrow plan, and is divided into four courts. 
The main entrance on the eastern side is through a ponderous gateway flanked 
by solid towers and with curiously-constructed ancient wooden doors. Enter- 
ing the court, there is a massive tower on the left hand with an exterior stair- 
case turret, while on the right the custodian lives in a group of comparatively 
modern buildings, beneath which is a vaulted chamber communicating with the 
river. Within this tower, whose walls are of great thickness, Henry Marten 
was imprisoned. He was one of the court that tried King Charles, and his 



3 68 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUl AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



signature is upon the king's death-warrant. He was a spendthrift, and after- 
wards had a quarrel with Cromwell, who denounced him as an unbeliever, 
and even as a buffoon. When Charles 11. made the proclamation of amnesty. 
Marten surrendered, but he was tried and condemned to death. He plead 
that he came in under the proffer of mercy, and the sentence was com- 
muted to a life imprisonment; and alter a short confinement in the Tower 
of London he was removed to Chepstow, where he died twenty years later, 
in i oSo. Passing into the smaller second court, for the rocks contract 
it, there is a strong tower protecting its entrance, and at the upper end 
are the ruins of the great hall, relics of the fourteenth century. Two or 
three windows, a door, and part ol an arcade remain, but roof and 

floor are gone. A 
still smaller court 
lies beyond, at 
the upper end ot 
w hich is a gate- 
way defended by 
a moat, beyond 
W hich is t h e 
western gate and 
court of the cas- 
tle, so that this 
last enclosure 
forms a kind of 
barbican. Chep- 
stow was elab- 
orately defended, 
and its only vul- 
chepstow castle. neiable points 

were from the meadows on the east and the higher ground to the west; but before 
the days of artillery it was regarded as impregnable, and excellently performed 
its duty as a check upon the Welsh. Fitzosbern, Earl of Hereford, built the older 
parts in the eleventh century, but the most of Chepstow dates from that great 
epoch of castle-building on the Welsh border, the reign of Edward I. We are 
told that the second Fitzosbern was attainted and his estates forfeited, but that 
the king one Easter graciously sent to him in prison his royal robes. 1 he earl 
so disdained the favor that he burned them, which made the king so angry that 
he said, "Certainly this is a very proud man who hath thus abused me, but, by 
the brightness of Cod, he shall never come out o( prison so long as I live." 




THE GOLDEN VALLEY. 369 



Whereupon, says Dugdale, who tells the tale, he remained a prisoner until he 
died. Chepstow was then bestowed upon the De Clares, who founded Tintern 
Abbey, and it afterwards passed by marriage to the Bigod family. Chepstow 
in the Civil War was held for the king, and surrendered to the Parliamentary 
troops. Soon afterwards it was surprised at the western gate and retaken. 
Cromwell then besieged it, but, the siege proving protracted, he left Colonel 
Ewer in charge. The Royalist garrison of about one hundred and sixty men 
were reduced to great extremity and tried to escape by a boat, but in this they 
were disappointed, as one of the besiegers, watching his opportunity, swam 
across the Wye with a knife in his teeth and cut the boat adrift. Then the 
castle was assaulted and taken, and the commander and most of the garrison 
slain. Parliament gave it to Cromwell, but after the Restoration it was returned 
to the heirs of the Marquis of Worcester, its owner, and it still belongs to his 
descendant, the Duke of Beaufort. The neighborhood of Chepstow has many 
pleasant villas in beautiful sites, and the broadening Wye flows a short distance 
beyond through the meadow-land, and then debouches into the estuary of the 
Severn. 

THE GOLDEN VALLEY. 

Still journeying westward beyond the beautiful valley of the Wye, we will 
ascend its tributary, the Monnow, to its sources in the Black Mountains on the 
borders of Wales. We skirted along the northern side of these mountains 
with the Wye, while the Monnow takes us fairly into them. The little river 
Dore is one of the head-waters of the Monnow, and it flows through the pic- 
turesque region known as the Golden Valley, just on the edge of Brecon, where 
the trout-fishing is as attractive as the scenery. All its streams rise upon the 
flanks of the Black Mountains, and the village of Pontrilas is its railway-station 
at the entrance to the valley. This village is devoted to the manufacture of 
naphtha, for which purpose mules bring wood from the neighboring forests, and 
it was once honored with the presence of a hotel. This was its principal man- 
sion, Pontrilas Court, but it has long since been converted into a private resi- 
dence. This court is a characteristic Elizabethan mansion, standing in a 
beautiful garden almost smothered in foliage and running vines. About a 
mile up the valley is the pretty village of Ewias Harold, with its church on 
one sloping bank of the little river and its castle on the other. Within the 
church alongside the chancel there is a recumbent female figure holding a 
casket in its hands. The tomb upon which it is placed was some time ago 
opened, but nothing was found within excepting a case containing a human 
heart. The monument probably commemorates an unknown benefactress 
47 



37o 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



whose corpse lies elsewhere, but who ordered her heart sent to the spot she 
loved best. The castle, standing on an eminence, was once a strong fortress, 
and tradition says it — 
was built by Harold 
before he was king", 
but it does not oc- 
cupy a prominent 
place in history. As- 
cending a hill to the 
northward, a view is 
obtained over the \ al- 
leys ot" the three pic- 
turesque streams — 
the Dore, Dulas. and 
Monnow — that after- 
wards unite their 
waters; and, pro- 
ceeding up the Dore. 
we come to the vil- 
lage of Abbey Dure, 
with the rootless ruins 
ol its abbey, a part 
ot which is utilized 
for the parish church, 
though scarcely any- 
thing is now left be- 
yond fragments of the con- 
ventual buildings. This was a 




Cistercian monastery founded by Robert 
ot Ewias in the reign ol Henrj 1. We are 
now in the heart of the (.old n Valley, which 
seems to be excavated out ot a plateau with pontrilas court. 

long, terrace-like hills bounding it on either hand, their lower parts rich in ver- 
dure, while their summits are dark and generallj bare. Every available part 
ot the lower surface is thoroughly cultivated, its hedgerows and copses fixing 
variety to the scene. As we move up the valley the Scyrrid Vawr raises its 
notched and pointed summit like a peak dropped down upon the lowlands. 
This mountain, nearly fifteen hundred feet high, whose name means the "Great 
Fissure," is severed into an upper and lower summit by a deep cleft due to a 



THE GOLDEN VALLEY. 



0/ 



landslip. It is also known as the Holy Mountain, and in its day has been the 
goal of many pilgrims. St. Michael, the guardian of the hills, has a chapel there, 
where crowds resorted 
on the eve of his fes- 
tival. It used to be 
the custom for the 
Welsh farmers to send 
for sackloads of earth 
out of the cleft in this 
Holy Mountain, which 
they sprinkled over 
their houses and farm- 
buildings to avoid evil. 
They were also espe- 
cially careful to strew 
portions over the 
coffins and graves ot 
the dead. At the vil- 
lage of Worm ridge, 
where some members 
of the Clive family are .-. 

buried, there isagrand 
old elm on the village- 
green around which 
the people used to as- 
semble for wrestling 
and for the performance 
of other rural amusements. 
At the base of this tree stood the 
stocks, that dungeon "all of wood" to 
which it is said there was 

•• neither iron bar nor gate, 

Portcullis, chain, nor bolt, nor grate, 

And yet men durance there abide 

In dungeon scarce three inches wide." 

This famous valley also contains the pretty church and scanty ruins of the 
castle of Kilpeck ; also the church of St. Peter at Rowlstone, where the orna- 
mental representations of cocks and apostolic figures all have their heads 




THE bCYRKID VAWR. 



37- ENGL IND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



downward, in memory ol the position in which St. Peter was crucified. Here 
also, on the edge of the Black Mountains, is Oldcastle, whose ruins recall its 
owner. Sir John " oi thai ilk," the martyr who was sentenced in 1417 to be 
taken from the Tower of London to St. (dies' gallows, there to be hanged, 
and burned while hanging, as "a most pernicious, detestable heretic." At 
Longtown, the residence oi the Lacies, there are remains of the walls and 
circular keep of their strong Border fortress. Kentchurch, on the slope of 
Garway Hill, is a seat oi the Earl oi Scudamore, where anciently lived [ohn 
of Kent, a poet and mathematician, of whom Symonds tells us in his Records 
of the Rocks that "he sold his soul to the devil, and constructed the bridge 
over the Monnow in a single night." The ruined castle of Grosmont is about 
a mile distant : it was often besieged by the Welsh, and we are told that on 
one occasion "the kin- came with a great army to raise the siege, whereof, as 
soon as the Welshmen had understanding, the) saved their lives by their 
legges." h was here that Henry of Monmouth defeated the Welsh, capturing 

Glendower's son Griffith. 

A i; E RCA V I ■: N XV AND LL ANTH N V . 

Rounding the southern extremit) oi the Black Mountains, and proceeding 
farther westward, we enter another beautiful region, the Vale oi I'sk, a stream 
that flows southward into the estuary oi the Severn. Here is Abergavenny, 
with its ancient castle guarding the entrance to the upper valley, and with 
mountains on every side. Here rises, just north o( the town, the Sugar Loaf. 
onv thousand eight hundred and fifty-two feet high, and on the left hand the 
mass oi old red sandstone known as the Blorenge, one thousand seven hun- 
dred and twenty feet high. A few miles up the tributary vale of Lwias. which 
discloses glorious scenery, are the ruins of Llanthony Priory. The valley is a 
deep winding glen cut out by the Hodeni between the great cliffs o( the Black 
Mountains en the one side and the ranges around the Sugar Loaf on the other. 
In places the cliffs are precipitous, but. generally, the lower slopes furnish pas- 
ture land and occasional woods, while the upper parts are covered with bracken 
tern, with a tew trees and copses. The priory stands on a gentle -dope at the 
base ot the Black Mountains, elevated a short distance above the stream. 
Its original name was Llanhodeni, or "the Place by the Hodeni." It was 
founded by two hermits in the beginning oi the twelfth century — William de 
Lacy, a Norman knight, and Ernisius, chaplain to Maud, wife of Henry I. 
They first built a small chapel dedicated to St. David; gifts flowed in. and 
they were soon enabled to construct a grand religious house, occupied by 
Augustinian monks, oi whom Erniftus became the first prior. Predatory raids 



ABERGAVENNY AND LLANTHONY. 



313 



by the Welsh, however, harassed the monks, and after submitting lor some time 
to these annoyances they migrated to Gloucester, and founded another priory 
alongside the Severn. Later, however, they returned to the old place and 
kept up both establishments, but in the reign of Edward IV. the older was 
merged into the newer 
" because oi the turbulence 
of the neighboring people 
and the irregular lives of 
its inmates." The ruins of 
Llanthony are supposed to 
date from about 1200, and 
are of a marked though 
simple beauty. The con- 
vent buildings are almost 
all gone, excepting frag- 
ments of the cellars and 
chapter-house. The [trior's 
residence has become a 
farm-house, and where the 
monks sat in solemn con- 
clave is now its outbuild- 
ings. The towers are 
used, one for chambers and 
•the other for a dairy. The 
main part oi the church is. 
however, carefully pre 
served with a green turf 
floor, and the western 
towers up to the level oi 
the walls of the nave are 
still quite perfect, though 
the west window is gone and parts of the adjacent walls have perished. I In- 
north transept has fallen, but the southern transept is still in lair condition, 
lighted at the- end by a pair of round headed windows, with a circular one 
above; a semicircular arch on its eastern side opens into a chapel. The choir 
is also well preserved. These ruins exhibit semicircular with pointed arches 
in indiscriminate combination, and during the present century decay has caused 
much of them to fall. It was to Llanthony that Walter Savage Landor removed 
in 1809, selling much of his family estates in order to buy it. lb- projected 




LLANTHONY I'RIOKY. LOOKING DOWN III! NAV1 



374 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



grand improvements, including the restoration of the priory, the construction 
of roads and bridges, and the cultivation of extensive tracts on the mountain- 
side, so that it became of note among literary men as the home ot one of the 
most original of their guild. His biographer tells us that he imported sheep 
from Segovia, and applied to Southey and other friends to furnish him tenants 

— — who would introduce improved 




agricultural methods. The inhab- 
itants of this remote region were 
morose and impoverished, and he 
wished to reclaim them. To clothe 
the hare spots on the flanks of the 
mountains, he bought two thousand 
cones of the cedars of Lebanon, 
each calculated to produce a hun- 
dred seeds, and he often exulted 
" in the thought of the million 
cedar trees which he would thus 
leave for shelter and the delight 
of posterity." But he met the late 
of many projectors. After four 
years' struggle he became disgust- 
ed with Llanthony and its people ; 
he was in a quarrel with almost 
everybody, and his genius for 
punctiliousness had turned nearly 
the whole neighborhood against 
him. He had sunk his capital in 
the estate and its improvements, 
ami b 'coming embarrassed, it was 
taken out of his hands and vested 
in trustees. His half-built house 
was pulled down, and the disgusted Landor left England for the Continent. 
At Llanthony he composed Latin verses and English tragedy, but his best 
literary labor was performed after he left there. A few miles farther up the 
valley is Capel-) Ffyn, where Father Ignatius within a few vears has erected his 
Anglican monastery. He was Rev. Mr. Lyne, anil came from Norwich, where 
he was in frequent collision with the bishop. After much pother and notoriety 
ho took his Protestant monastic settlement to this nook in the heart of the 
Black Mountains, where he ami his monks perform their orisons in peace. 



NEWPORT, CARDIFF, AND LLANDAFF. 375 



NEWPORT, CARDIFF* AND LLANDAFF. 

We now follow down the Usk, and at its mouth upon the Severn estuary is 
Newport, in Monmouthshire, where there are large docks and a considerable 
trade. The ruins of Newport Castle stand on the western bank of the river. 
In the suburbs is Caerleon, where the Romans long had the garrison-post of 
the second Augustan legion. The museum here is filled with Roman remains, 
and the amphitheatre, called " King Arthur's Round Table," is alongside. Pro- 
ceeding westward about twelve miles along the shore of the Severn estuary, 
we come to Penarth Roads in (Glamorganshire, sheltered under a bold head- 
land at the mouths of the Ely and the Taff, and the flourishing Welsh seaport 
of Cardiff on the banks of the latter stream. This is the outport of the Welsh 
coal and iron region, and the Marquis of Bute, who is a large landowner here, 
has done much to develop its enormous trade, which goes to all parts of the 
world. Its name is derived from Caer Taff, the fortress on the river Taff, and 
in early times the Welsh established a castle there, but the present one was of 
later construction, having been built by Robert Fitzhamon, the Anglo-Norman 
conqueror of Glamorgan. It was afterwards strongly fortified, and here the 
unfortunate Robert, son of William the Conqueror, was imprisoned for twenty- 
eight years by his brother Henry I., his eyes being put out for his greater 
security. The tower where he was confined still stands alongside the entrance 
gateway, and during his long captivity we are told that he soothed his weari- 
ness by becoming a poet. The ancient keep remains standing on its circular 
mound, but the castle has been restored and modernized by the Marquis of 
Bute, who occasionally resides there, and has given it a fine western front 
flanked by a massive octagonal tower. The moat is filled up, and, with the 
acclivities of the ramparts, is made a public walk and garden. In the valley 
of the Taff, a short distance from Cardiff, is the famous " Rocking Stone," 
standing on the western brink of a hill called Coed-pen-maen, or the " Wood 
of the Stone Summit." It was anciently a Druids' altar, and with a surface 
of about one hundred square feet is only two to three feet thick, so that 
it contains about two hundred and fifty cubic feet of stone. It is the rough 
argillaceous sandstone that accompanies the coal-measures in this part of 
Wales, and a moderate force gives it quite a rocking motion, which can be 
easily continued with one hand. It stands nearly in equilibrium upon a pivotal 
rock beneath. Two miles from Cardiff is the ancient and straeeliny village 
of Llandaft, which was the seat of the earliest Christian bishopric in Wales, 
having been founded in the fourth century. Its cathedral, for a long time 
dilapidated, has within a few years been thoroughly restored. All the valleys 



376 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 

in the hilly region tributary to Cardiff are full of coal ami iron, the mining and 
smelting of which have made enormous fortunes for their owners and developed 
a vast industry there within the present century. About nine miles north of 
Cardiff is Caerphilly Castle, which has the most remarkable leaning tower in 
Britain, it being more inclined from the perpendicular than any other that is 
known. It is about eighty feet high, and bans over a distance ot eleven feet. 
It rests only on a part of its southern side, and maintains its position chiefly 
through the strength of the cement. This castle was built by the De Clares 
in the reign of Henry lib, and large additions were made to it by Hugh De- 
spenser. who garrisoned it for Edward II. in order to check the Welsh. It is a 
large concentric castle, covering about thirty acres, having three distinct wards, 
seven gatehouses, and thirty portcullises. It was here that Edward II. and 
his favorites, the Despensers, were besieged by the queen in 1526. The defence 
was well conducted, and the besiegers were greatly annoyed by melted metal 
thrown down nn them from the walls, which was heated in furnaces still remain- 
ing at the foot of the tower. They made a desperate assault, which was par- 
tially successful, though it ultimately failed; and we are told that while in the 
castle they let the red-hot metal run out of the furnaces, and, throwing water 
on it from the moat, caused an explosion which tore the tower from its founda- 
tions and left it in its present condition. The fissures made by the explosion 
are still visible, and it has stood thus for over five centuries. The castle ulti- 
mately surrendered, the king having previously escaped. The Despensers 
were beheaded, and their castle never regained its ancient splendor. 

SWANSEA. 

Journeying westward from Cardiff along the coast of Glamorganshire, upon 
the Bristol Channel, we come to the Welsh Bay of Naples, where the chim- 
neys replace the volcano of Vesuvius as smoke-producers. This is the Bay 
ot Swansea, a very fine one, extending for several miles in a grand curve from 
Porthcawl headland on the eastern verge around to the Mumbles, where a bold 
limestone cliff runs far out into the sea and forms a natural breakwater. Within 
this magnificent bay, with its wooded and villa-lined shores, there is a spot that 
discloses the bare brown hills guarding the entrance to the valley of the river 
Tawe, up which the houses of Swansea climb, with a dense cloud of smoke 
overhanging them that is evolved from the smelting-furnaces and collieries 
behind the town. Forests of masts appear where the smoke permits them 
to be visible, and then to the right hand another gap and overhanging smoke- 
cloud marks the valley of the Neath. The ancient Britons called the place 
Aber-tawe, from the river, and there are various derivations of the present 



s i r.-hvs /■:.-!. 



377 



name. Some say it came from (locks of swans appearing in the bay, and 
others from the porpoises or sea-swine, so that the reader may take his choice 
of Swan-sea or Swine-sea. In the twelfth century it was known as Sweynsey, 
and perhaps the best authority says the name came from Sweyne. a Scandi- 
navian who frequented that coast with his ships. When the Normans invaded 
Glamorgan, Henry Beauchamp, Marl of Warwick, captured Swansea, and in 
the twelfth century built a castle there. King John gave it a charter, and it 




NORTH DOCK, SWAN •! '• 

became a town of some importance, as he granted it extensive trading-privi- 
leges. In another charter, given by the lord of the manor in 1305, the 
first allusion is made to Welsh coal, for the people among other privileges 
are allowed to dig "pit-coal in Ballywasta." Thus began the industry that has 
become the mainstay of prosperity in South Wales. Warwick's Castle at 
Swansea has entirely disappeared, the present ruins being those of a castle- 
afterwards built by Henry de Gower, who became Bishop of St. David's. 
What is left of it is almost hidden by modern buildings. It has the remains 
of a curtain-wall and two towers, the larger of which has an arcade beneath 

48 



378 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



the battlement — an unusual but pleasing feature. Lewellyn harassed the town 
and castle, but it had not much history until the Civil War, when there was a 
little fighting for its possession. A Parliamentary ship appeared in the bay 
and demanded the surrender of the town, which was refused; but in the fol- 
lowing year the Parliamentary 
troops captured it. Subsequently 




the castle changed hands several times — 
the guide-book states " rather politically 
than gloriously." Cromwell ultimately took 
possession in 1648, resided at Swansea for 
some time as lord of the manor, and was very liberal to the town. 
The castle was dismantled and partly destroyed, the keep being 
used as a jail. Swansea, like all the cities in the Welsh coal and metal region, 
has grown greatly during the present century. Walter Savage Landor lived 
here for a while, just when the copper-works were beginning to appear in the 
valley of the Tawe. Their smoke defiled the landscape, and he exclaimed, 
"Would to God there was no trade upon earth 1 " He preferred Swansea Bay 
above the gulf of Salerno or of Naples, and wrote, " Give me Swansea for 
scenery and climate! If ever it should lie my fortune to return to England, I 
would pass the remainder of my days in the neighborhood of Swansea, between 
that place and the Mumbles." 

Swansea's earliest dock was made by walline a tidal inlet called Port 



Sll\l YSF /. 



379 



Tennant, ami is still used. Its former great dock was the North Dock, con- 
structed in the old bed of the Tawe, a newer and more direct channel being 
made lor the river. It has two recently-constructed and larger docks. Up the 
valley of the Tawe the town spreads several miles, and here are the enormous 
copper-works and smelting-furnaces which make a reproduction of the infernal 
regions, defile the air, but fill the purses of the townsfolk. Swansea is the 
greatest copper-smelting depot in the world, drawing its ores from all parts 
of the globe. There had been copper-works on the Neath three centuries 




,C~- 



THE MUMBLES. 



ago, but the first 
upon the Tawe 
were establish- 
ed in i 745. From them 
have grown the fame 
and wealth of the Cornish family 
of the Vivians, who have been 
copper-smelters for three generations at Swansea, and in front of the town- 
hall stands the statue of the " Copper King," the late John Henry Vivian, who 
represented Swansea in Parliament. There are also iron, zinc, lead, and tin- 
plate works, making this a great metallurgical centre, while within forty miles 
there are over five hundred collieries, some existing at the very doors of the 
smelting-works. It is cheap fuel that has made the fortune of Swansea. 

The bold promontory of the Mumbles, which bounds Swansea Bay to the 
westward, has become a popular watering-place, into which it has gradually 
developed from the fishing-village nestling under Oystermouth Castle. The 
bay was once a great producer of oysters, and dredging for them was the 



3 8o 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



chief industry of the inhabitants. The remains of the castle stand upon a 
knoll overlooking the sea. ami with higher hills behind. The Duke of Beau- 
fort, to whom it belongs, keeps the ruins carefully protected, and they are in 




OYSTERMOVTH CASTLE. 

rather good preservation. The 
plan is polygonal, approach- 
ing a triangle, with its apex to- 
wards the sea, where was the only entran 
a gateway guarded by two round tower-. 
of which only the inner face now remains. 
The interior court is small, with the keep at 
the north-eastern angle, having a chapel at the top. There are some other 
apartments with vaulted chambers underground. Henry de Bellamont is 
believed to have built this fortress at about the time of the construction of 
Swansea Castle, but it has not contributed much to history, though now a 
picturesque ruin. 

On the eastern side of Swansea Bay enters the Vale o\ Neath, where is 



CAERMARTHEN AND PEMBROKE. 



38l 



also a manufacturing- town of rapid growth, while within the Vale is beautilul 
scenery. Neath is o( great antiquity, having been the Nidum of the days of 
Antoninus. At the Crumlyn Bog, where white lilies blossom on the site of 
an ancient lake, legend says is entombed a primitive city, in proof whereof 
strains of unearthly music may be occasionally heard issuing from beneath the 
waters. In the valley on the western bank of the river are the extensive ruins 
of Neath Abbey, said once to have been the fairest in all Wales. This religious 




NEATH ABBEY. 



house was founded by Richard de Granville in the twelfth century, but its present 
buildings are of later date. Within its walls Edward II. took refuge when he 
escaped from Caerphilly, for it had the privilege of sanctuary; but after leaving 
Neath a faithless monk betrayed him, and he was put to death most cruelly at 
Berkeley Castle. Only a ruined gateway remains of Neath Castle, blackened 
by the smoke ol smelting-works. 



CAERMARTHEN AND PEMBROKE. 



Proceeding westward along the coast of the jutting peninsula formed by 
South Wales, another grand bay indents the shore, and on the bold banks of 
the Towy is Caermarthen, which gives the bay its name. Here there was a 



382 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



Roman station, on the site of which the castle was built, but by whom is not 
accurately known. The Parliamentarians captured and dismantled it, and it 
has since fallen into almost complete decay, though part was occupied as a jail 
till the last century. In Caermarthen Church, Richard Steele the essayist is 
buried, while from the parade is a beautiful view up the Yale of Towy towards 
Merlin's Hill and Abergwili, which was the home of that renowned sage. 
Around the sweeping shores of Caermarthen Bay, about fifteen miles to the 
westward, is Tenby Castle, the town, now a watering-place, being singularly 
situated on the eastern and southern sides of a narrow rocky peninsula en- 
tirely surrounded by the sea, excepting to the northward. This was the Welsh 
" Precipice of Fishes," and its castle was strongly fortified. It stood a five 
days' siege from Cromwell, and its shattered ruins, with the keep on the sum- 
mit of the hill, show a strong fortress. From the top there is a magnificent 
view of the neighboring shores and far across the sea to the lofty coasts of 
Devonshire. Manorbeer Castle, belonging to Lord Milford, is near Tenby, 
and is considered the best structure of its class in Wales. It is the carefully- 
preserved home of an old Norman baron, with its church, mill, dove-house, 
pond, park, and grove, and " the houses of his vassals at such distance as to 
be within call." The buildings have stone roofs, most of which are perfect, 
and it has been tenantless, yet carefully preserved, since the Middle Ages. 
Parts of it have stood for six centuries. In the upper portion of the Vale of 
Towy is the Golden Grove, a seat of the Earl of Cawdor, a modern Elizabethan 
structure. Here lived Jeremy Taylor, having taken refuge there in the Civil 
War, and he here wrote some of his greatest works. 

Beyond Caermarthenshire is Pembrokeshire, forming the western extremity 
of the Welsh peninsula. The river Cleddan, flowing south-westward, broadens 
at its mouth into the estuary known as Milford Haven. It receives a western 
branch, on the side of which is the countv-town, Haverfordwest, placed on a 
hill where the De Clares founded a castle, of which little now remains but the 
keep, used (as so many of them now are) as the county-jail. Cromwell demol- 
ished this castle after it fell into his hands. The great promontory of St. David's 
Head juts out into the sea sixteen miles to the westward. The Cleddan flows 
down between the towns of Pembroke and Milford. The ruins of Pembroke 
Castle upon a high rock disclose an enormous circular keep, seventy-five feet 
high and one hundred and sixty-three feet in circumference. It was begun in 
the eleventh century, and was the birthplace of Henry VII. in 1456. Here 
Cromwell was repulsed in 1648, but the fortress was secured for the Parliament 
alter six weeks' siege. The garrison were reduced to great straits, but were 
only subdued by the skilful use of artillery in battering down the stairway 



CAERMARTHEN AND PEMBROKE. 383 

leading to the well where they got their water : the spring that supplied them 
is still there. Pembroke has extensive trade, and its shipbuilding dockyard 
covers eighty acres. Opposite this dockyard is Miliord, the harbor being a 
mile and a half wide. The railway from London runs down to the pier, and 
passengers are transferred to steamers for Ireland, this being the terminus of 
the Great Western Railway route, two hundred and eighty-five miles from the 
metropolis. Milford Haven, at which we close this descriptive journey, stretches 
ior ten miles inland from the sea, varying from one to two miles in breadth, 
affords ample anchorage, and is strongly fortified. The ancient Pictou Castle 
guards the junction of the two branches of the Cleddan above Milford, while 
Carew Castle stands on a creek entering Milford Haven on the south-eastern 
shore, and is an august though ruined relic of the baronial splendors of the 
Middle Ages. It well represents the condition of most of the seacoast castles 
in this part of Wales, of one of which Dyer has written . 

•' His sides are clothed with waving wood, 
And ancient towers crown his brow, 
That cast an awful look below ; 
Whose rugged sides the ivy creeps, 
And with her arms from falling keeps. 
Tis now the raven's bleak abode ; 
'Tis now th' apartment of the toad; 
And there the fox securely feeds, 
And there the poisonous adder breeds, 
Concealed in ruins, moss, and weeds ; 
While ever and anon there fall 
Huge heaps of hoary, mouldered wall. 
Yet time has seen, that lifts the low 
And level lays the lofty brow, — 
Has seen this broken pile complete, 
Big with the vanity of state; — 
But transient is the smile of tate. ' 



VII. 

LONDON, SOUTH-WEST TO LAND'S END. 

Virginia Water— Sunninghill — Ascot — Wokingham — Bearwood— The London Times — White Horse Hill — 
Box Tunnel — Salisbury — Salisbury Plain — Old Sarum — Stonehenge — Amesbury — Wilton House — The 
Earls of Pembroke— Carpet-making— Bath— William Bsckford — Fonthill — Bristol — William Canynge 
—Chatterton— Clifton— Brandon Hill— Wells — The Mendips— Jocelyn — Beckington— Ralph of Shrews- 
bury—Thomas Ken— The Cheddar Cliffs— The Wookey Hole— The Black Down— The Isle of Avelon 
— Glastonbury— Weary-all Hill— Sedgemoor — The Isle of Athelney — Bridgewater — Oldmixon — Mon- 
mouth"s Rebellion — Weston Zoyland — King Alfred — Sherborne — Sir Walter Raleigh — The Coast of 
Dorset — Poole — Wareham— Isle of Purbeck — Corfe Castle — The Foreland — Swanage — St. Aldhelm's 
Head — Weymouth— Portland Isle and Bill— The Channel Islands— Jersey — Corbiere Promontory — 
Mount Orgueil — Aldern-jy — Guernsey — Castle Cornet — The Southern Coast of Devon — Abbotsbury — 
Lyme Regis — Axminster — Sidmouth — Exmouth — Exeter — William, Prince of Orange — Lxeter Cathe- 
dral — Bishop Trelawney — Dawlish — Teignmouth — Hope's Nose — Babbicombe Bay An^tis Cove — 
Torbay — Torquay — Brixham — Dartmoor — The River Dart — Totnes— Berry Pomeroy Castle— Dart- 
mouth — The River Plym — The Dewerstone — Plympton Priory — Sir Joshua Reynolds — Catwater Haven 
— Plymouth — Stonehouse — Devonport — Eddystone Lighthouse — Tavistock Abbey — Buckland Abbey— 
Lydford Castle — The Northern Coast of Devon — Exmoor — Minehead — Dunster — Dunkery Beacon — Por- 
lock Bay — The River Lyn — Oare — Lorna Doone — Jan Ridd — Lynton — Lynmouth — Castle Rock — The 
De\ il's Cheese-Ring — Combe Martin— Ilfracombe — Morte Point — Morthoe — Barnstaple — Bideford — 
Clovelly — -Lundy Island — Cor wall — Tintagel — Launceston— Liskeard — Fowey — Lizard Peninsula — 
Falmouth — Pendennis Castle — Helston — Mullyon Cove— Smuggling — Kynance Cove — The Post-Office 
— Old Lizard Head— Polpeor — St. Michael's Mount — Penzance— Pilchard Fishery — Penwith — Land's 
End. 

ASCOT AND BEARWOOD. 

LEAVING London by the South-western Railway, and skirting along the 
ttd'^r of Windsor Park, we pass Virginia Water, the largest artificial 
lake in England. Upon its bosom float miniature frigates, and its banks are 
bordered by a Chinese fishing temple, and a colonnade which was brought 
from the African coast near Tunis. Here also are a hermitage overlooking 
the lake, and the triangular turreted building known as the Belvedere, where a 
battery of guns is kept that was used in the wars of the last century. Not far 
beyond is Sunninghill, near which was Pope's early home, and in the garden of 
the vicarage are three trees planted by Burke, Chesterfield, and Bolingbroke. 
Farther westward is the famous Ascot race-course on Ascot Heath, where the 



ASCOT AND BEARWOOD. 



3«5 



races are run in June upon a circular course of about two miles, the neigh- 
borhood containing many handsome villas. Still journeying westward, tin- 
route passes Wokingham, where Gay, Swift, Pope, and Arbuthnot were on 
one occasion detained at the Rose Inn in wet weather, and whiled away the 
time by composing the song of " Molly Mog." 

Just beyond Wokingham is the fine estate of Bearwood, the seat of John Wal- 
ter, Esq., the proprietor of the London Times, one of the stately rural homes 
of England. Here, in a large and beautiful park which retains much of its 




■■i . 



i in'. . "'f [ft^'/ils^ 



Si** ; v-; 



■' : ' ' ' '^- ' 



- 



I'.i .1 WOOD. 



original forest character, and standing upon the terraced bank of a lovely lake, 
Bearwood House has within a few years been entirely rebuilt, its feature being 
the central picture-gallery containing a fine collection of paintings, around 
which clusters a suite of grand apartments. The estate includes several thou- 
sand acres, and in the many pleasant cottages scattered over it and the homes 
at Bearwood village many of the aged and infirm employes of the Times pass 
their declining years. The Times, which was founded January i, 1788, by the 
grandfather of the present proprietor, has steadily grown in commanding in- 
fluence until it occupies the front rank in English journalism and is the leading 
newspaper of the kingdom. Its proprietor has recently entirely rebuilt its 
publication-offices in Printing-House Square and on Queen Victoria Street in 



386 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



London, adapting all the modern appliances of improved machinery and 
methods to its publication. It is at Bearwood, however, that his philanthropic 
ideas also find a broad field of usefulness in caring for those who have grown 
-ray in the service of the Times, and thither every year go the entire corps of 
employes to enjoy an annual picnic under the spreading- foliage of the park, 
while no home in England is more frequented by Americans or extends to kin 
from across sea a more generous hospitality. 

KING ALFRED'S WHITE HORSE. 

In the chalk hills of Berkshire, beyond Reading and north of Hungerford, 
there rises an eminence over nine hundred feet high, known as the White 
Horse Hill. It is a famous place; upon the summit, covering a dozen acres, 
and from which eleven counties can be seen, there is a magnificent Roman 
camp, with gales, ditch, and mound as complete as when the legions left it. 
To the westward of the hill, and under its shadow, was the battlefield o' Ash- 
down, where Alfred defeated the Danes and broke their power in 87 1. He 
fought eight other battles against the Danes that year, but they were mere 
skirmishes compared with the decisive victory of Ashdown, ami in memory 
of it he ordered his army to carve the White Horse on the hillside as the 
emblem of the standard of Hengist. It is cut out of the turf ami can lie 
seen to a great distance, being three hundred and seventy-four feet Ion-. 
After a spell of bad weather it gets out of condition, ami can only be restored 
to proper form by being scoured, this ceremony bringing a large concourse 
of people from all the neighboring villages. The festival was held in 1857, 
and the old White Horse was then brought back into proper form with much 
pomp and great rejoicing. The ancient balladist thus quaintly describes the 
festivity on these memorable occasions: 

"The owld White liaise wants zettin to rights, and the squire hev promised good cheer, 

Zo we'll gee mi a Si rape to kip tin in zhape, and a'll last tor many a year. 

A was made a lang, Ian- time ago, wi a good dale 0' labor ami pains, 

By King Alferd the Great, when he spwiled then consate ami caddled* thay wosbirdsf the Dane,, 

The Bleawin Stwun in days -one by wur Kin- Alferd's bugle ham. 

And the tharnin tree you med plainly zee as is called King Alferd's tharn, 

There 11 lie backsword play, and climmin the powl, and a race lor a peg, and a cheese. 

And us thenks as 1umi's a dummell} /owl as dwont care lor zi( h spwoorts as theze." 

Leaving London by the Great Western Railway, and passing beyond Berk- 
shire, we cross the boundary into Wiltshire, and go through the longest rail- 

addled, worried, ■ osbirds, birds of evil omen. J dummell, stupid. 



S. XLISBURY. 



3*7 



way-tunnel in England, the noted Box Tunnel, which is a mile and three quarters 
in length and cost over #2,500,000 to construct. It goes through a ridge oi 
great-oolite, from which the valuable bath-stone is quarried, and the railway 
ultimately brings us to the: cathedral city that boasts the tallest church spire in 
England — Salisbury, the county-town of Wiltshire, standing in the valley formed 
by the: confluence of three rivers, the Avon, Bourne, and Wiley. 



SA 1. 1 SHI' RY. 
I he celebrated cathedral, which in some respects may be considered the 
earliest in England, is the chief object at Salisbury, and was founded by Bishop 
Poore in 1220. It was the first great church built in the Early English style, 
and its spire is among 
the most imposing 
Gothic constructions in 
existence. The city of 
Salisbury is unique in 
having nothing Roman, 
Saxon, or Norman in its 
origin, and in being even 
without the remains of a 
baronial fortress. It is a 
purely English city, and, 
though it was surround 
ed by walls, they were 
merely boundaries of Salisbury cathedral. 

the dominions of the ecclesiastics. The see of Salisbury in 1215 was removed 
from Old Sarum to its present location in consequence <>l the frequent ton 
tests between the clergy and the castellans, and soon afterwards the construc- 
tion of the cathedral began. King Henry III. granted the church a weekly 
market and an annual fair lasting eight days, and the symmetrical arrange- 
ment of the streets is said to have been caused by the original laying out of 
the city in spaces "seven perches each in length and three in breadth," as the 
historian tells us. 'I he cathedral close, which is surrounded by a wall, has lour 
gateways, and the best view of the cathedral is fsom the north-eastern side of 
the close, hut a more distant view — say from a mile away — brings out the pro- 
portions of the universally admired spire to much greater advantage. The 
• hief cathedral entrance is by the north porch, which is a fine and lofty .structure, 
lined with a double arcade and having an upper chamber. The nave is beauti- 
ful, though it suffers somewhat in warmth ol coloring from lacking stained 




3 88 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



glass, and the cloisters, which are entered from the south western transept, are 
admirable, being of later date and exhibiting a more developed style than the 
remainder of the cathedral. Their graceful windows and long gray arcades 
contrast splendidly with the greensward of the cloister-garth. They include 
an octagonal chapter house, fifty-eight feet in diameter and fifty-two feet high, 
which has been restored in memory of a recent bishop at a cost of $260,000. 
The restoration has enriched the house with magnificent sculptures represent- 
ino- Old-Testament history, and the restoration of the cathedral is also pro- 
gressing. The adjoining episcopal palace is an irregular but picturesque pile 
of buildings, with a gateway tower that is a prominent feature. 

Salisbury has plenty of 
old houses, like most Eng- 
lish towns, and it also has 
a large square market- 
place, c o n t a i n i n g the 
Gothic Poultry Cross, a 
most graceful stone struc- 
ture, and also the council- 
house of modern erection, 
in front of which is a. statue 
of Sidney Herbert. Its 
ancient banquet-hall, built 
tour hundred years ago 
by fohn Halle, and hav- 
ing a lolty timber roof 
andan elaborately-carved 
oak screen, is now used as 
the show-room fora shop. 
To the northward of Salisbury is that region filled with prehistoric relics 
known as Salisbury Plain. Here are ancient fortresses, barrows, and sepulchral 
mounds, earthworks, dykes, and trenches, roadways of the Roman and the 
Briton, and the great British stronghold, guarding the southern entrance to the 
plain, which became the Old Sarum of later times. Until within a century 
this plain was a solitary and almost abandoned region, but now there are good 
roads crossing it and much of the land is cultivated. It is a great triangular 
chalk-measure, each side roughly estimated at twenty miles long. The Bourne, 
Wiley, and Avon flow through it to meet near Salisbury, and all the bolder 
heights between their valleys are marked by ancient fortifications. Wiltshire 
is thus said to be divided between chalk and cheese, for the northern district 




SA] ISBURY MARKET. 



STONEHENGE. 3 89 



beyond the plain is a great dairy region. Let us journey northward from 
Salisbury across the plain, and as we enter its southern border there rises up 
almost at the edge the conical hill of Old Sarum, crowned by intrenchments. 
When they were made is not known, but in 552 they were a British defence 
against the Saxons, who captured them after a bitter fight and overran the 
plain. Five centuries later William the Norman reviewed his army here, and 
alter the first Domesday survey summoned all the landholders of England to 
the number of sixty thousand, who here swore fealty to him. The Normans 
strengthened it with a castle, and soon a cathedral also rose at Old Sarum, 
while a town grew around them. But all have disappeared, though now there 
can be traced the outlines of streets and houses and the foundations of the old 
cathedral. When the clergy removed to Salisbury it is said they determined 
the new site by an arrow shot from the ramparts of Old Sarum, and moving the 
cathedral soon attracted the people. Old Sarum for some time remained 
a strong fortress with many houses, but the cathedral was taken down in 
1 33 1 and its materials used for building the famous spire at Salisbury. The 
castle decayed, the town was gradually deserted, and as long ago as the six- 
teenth century we are told there was not a single house left there. And such 
it is to this day. Climbing the steep face of the hill, the summit is found 
fenced by a vast earthen rampart and ditch enclosing twenty-seven acres with 
an irregular circle, the height from the bottom ol the ditch to the top of the 
rampart being over one hundred feet. A smaller inner rampart as high as the 
outer one made the central citadel. Nearly all the stone has long ago been 
carried off to build Salisbury, and weeds and brushwood have overrun the 
remarkable fortress that has come down to us from such venerable antiquity. 
Under the English " rotten-borough " system Old Sarum enjoyed the privilege 
of sending two members to Parliament for three centuries after it ceased to be 
inhabited. The old tree under which the election was held still exists, and the 
elder Pitt, who lived near by, was first sent to Parliament as a representative 
of Old Sarum's vacant mounds. 



STONEHENGE. 

A few miles' farther journey to the northward over the hills and valleys, and 
among the sheep that also wander on Salisbury Plain, brings us to that remark- 
able relic of earlier ages which is probably the greatest curiosity in England — 
Stonehenge. When the gigantic stones were put there, and what for, no man 
knows. Many are the unanswered questions asked about them, for the poet 
says : 



590 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



••Thou noblest monument of Albion's isle! 

Whether b\ Merlin's aid from Scythia's shore 

To Amber's fatal plain Pendragon bore, 
Huge frame of giant hands, the mighty pile, 
To entomb his Britons slain by Hengist's guile; 

Or Druid priests, sprinkled with human gore, 

Taught 'mid thy massy maze their mystic lore; 
. hiefs, emu bed b\ sa\ age spoil, 

l'i Victory's idol vast, an unhewn shrine, 
Reared the huge heap; or. in thy hallowed round, 

Repose the kings ol Brutus' genuine line; 
Or hen- those king- in solemn state were crowned; 

Studious to trace tin wondrous origin, 
We muse on many an ancient tale r< nowned." 

Stonehenge is about nine miles north of Salisbury, near the town of Amesbury, 
where another ancient camp, known as "The Ramparts," crowns a wooded hill, 
around which the Avon tlows, the camp enclosing nearly forty acres. Stone- 
henge stands in a bleak, bare situation ^n Salisbury Plain, and in its original 




ST1 INEHI SGI I ROM I III' MIRTH. 



perfection, as nearly as tan now be judged, consisted of two concentric circles 
and two ellipses o< upright stones, surrounded by a bank and ditch, outside of 
which is a single upright stone and traces of a hippodrome. The entrance to 
the cluster ol circles was from the north-east, and the avenue to it is still trace- 
able by the banks of earth. The outer circle at Stonehenoe oriennallv con- 
sisted of thirty upright stones fixed in the ground at intervals of about three 
and a halt feet. On the top of them thirty other stones formed a continuous 
ring about sixteen feet above the ground. Within this circle, and leaving a 
space about nine feet wide between, was another circle of thirty or forty un- 
hewn stones about lour to seven feet high. Within this, again, was the grainiest 



STONEHENGE. 39 1 



part of the structure — a great ellipse formed of five triplets of stones or tri- 
lithons, each composed of two uprights and one placed crosswise. Within 
these was the inner ellipse of nineteen obelisks surrounding the altar-stone. 
Such was Stonehenge originally, but its ruins now appear very differently, and 
are only a confused pile of huge stones, for the most part such as are found 
on the neighboring plain and known as sarscns (a siliceous sandstone), though 
some of the smaller ones may be boulders brought from a distance. The 
diameter of the enclosure is three hundred and thirty-six feet. On the outer 
circle sixteen of the uprights and six of the surmounting stones forming the 
ring remain in their original positions. Two of the inner trilithons, the high- 
est rising twenty-five feet, remain perfect, and there are two single uprights, 
which lean considerably. The flat slab or altar-stone is lying on the ground. 
The avenue of approach opens in front of the inner ellipse and in a line with 
the altar-stone. In the avenue, outside the enclosure, is a block sixteen feet 
high in a leaning position, and known as the Friar's Heel. The legend tells 
us that when the great Enemy of the human race was raising Stonehenge he 
muttered to himself that no one would ever know how it was done. A pass- 
ing friar, hearing him, exclaimed, "That's more than thee can tell," and then 
fled. The Enemy flung this great stone after him, but hit only the friar's heel. 
The investigators of Stonehenge say that when standing on the altar-stone 
the midsummer sun is seen to rise to the north-east directly over the " Friar's 
Heel." The traces of the avenue in which it stands are, however, soon found 
to divide into two smaller avenues, one running south-east and the other north, 
and the latter is connected beyond with a long enclosure called the Cursus, and 
marked by banks of earth stretching east and west for about a mile and a half: 
there is nothing known of its use. The whole country about Stonehenge is 
dotted with groups of sepulchral barrows, and at the western end of the Cursus 
is a cluster of them more prominent than the others, and known as the "Seven 
Burrows." Stonehenge itself inspires with mystery and awe, the blocks being 
gray with lichens and worn by centuries of storms. Reference to them is 
found in the earliest chronicles of Britain, and countless legends are told of 
their origin and history, they usually being traced to mythical hands. In James 
I.'s reign Stonehenge was said to be a Roman temple, dedicated to Ccelus ; sub- 
sequently, it was attributed to the Danes, the Phoenicians, the Britons, and the 
Druids by various writers. Sir Richard Hoare, who has studied the mystery 
most closely, declines all these theories, and says the monument is grand but 
" voiceless." Horace Walpole shrewdly observes that whoever examines Stone- 
henge attributes it to that class of antiquity of which he is himself most fond ; 
anil thus it remains an insoluble problem to puzzle the investigator and impress 






■ \ \ • PICTURL - / \ND Dl r VE. 



the tourist. Michael Drayton plaintively and quaintly confesses that no one 



ll.l-> VI 



the mystery : 

■Dull heape, that thus thy head above the rest doest reare, 
Precisel) yet not know st who first did place thee thei 
111 did those mightie men to trust thee with tlieir sto- 
Thou hast forgot their names who rear"d thee li>r their glorie , 

1 their wondrous cost, thou that hast serv'd them so 
What 'tis to trust to toinbes by thee we easily know." 



WILTON HOUSE. 

Returning along the valley of the Avon past the almost lifeless town o\ 
Amesbury, where there formerly was a grand Benedictine monastery long since 
■ to decay, we cross over to the Wiley Vale, and at about three miles dis- 
tance from Salisbury come to the Earl o( Pembroke's seat at Wilton House. 
The ancient town of Wilton — or, as it was oriyfinally called, Willytown — stands at 




SOUTH EAST VIEW OF WILTON HOUSE. 

the confluence of the rivers Nadder and Wiley. The Britons established it. 

and it was one ot the capitals of the West Saxons. It was famous long before 
the Norman Conquest, and it afterwards obtained renown from the number 
and importance o( its monastic establishments, having had no less than twelve 
parish churches, though not a trace o( its abbey now remains. Henry VIII. 
dissolved it. and gave the site and buildings to Sir William Herbert, who was 
afterwards created Earl of Pembroke, and from its relics Wilton House was 
largely constructed. The town is now chiefly noted as the manufactory of 
.\\minster and \\ ilton carpets, dextrously woven by operatives who use most 
primitive machinery. The Karl's Park adjoins the town, and in it is Wilton 
House, one oi the grandest palaces in England, standing upon the site o{ the 
abbey. The buildings were designed by Holbein, .u\d the garden front being 



WILTON HOUSE. 



393 




mi I'l \ii' in i >i H r.i i i rr.i uiiiim. 



burned in [648, was rebuilt soon afterwards, while the entire structure was 
enlarged and remodelled during the present century, the cloisters being then 
added for the display oi the fine collection of 

sculptures. 1 he plan ol the house is a quad- 
rangle, with a glazed cloister occupying the cen- 
tral square. Within this cloister and the hall 
leading to it are the well-known Pembroke Mar- 
bles — statues, busts, urnsT vases, bassi-relievi, and 
fragments ol great value from Grecian and Ro- 
man works. This collection was formed during 
the last century, b"ing gathered 1>\ the then earl 
from various sources. In the hall are statues, 
but its chid interest conies from the numerous 
suits ol armor with which it is adorned, chiefly 
memorials of the battle of St. Quentin, fought in 1557, when the Earl of Pern 
broke commanded the British forces. One of the suits was worn by the earl 
himself, and two others by the Constable of France and the i )uc de IVIontpensier, 

both being 
taken prisoner. 
( )n either side 
are entrances to 
various apart- 
ments contain- 
ing v a 1 u a 1)1 e 
paintings. The 

chief of these 

is the " Family 
Pictu re," re 
garded as Van- 
dyke's master- 
piece — seven- 
teen leet long 

and eleven leet 

high, and filling 

one end ol the 

drawing- room. 




nd his countess 



I 111 l.II'.KAUV, WILTON lines 

It contains ten lull length figures — Philip, Earl of Pembroke, a 
and their children. Above them, hovering in the clouds, are three other chil- 
dren, who died in early life. In the Double Cube-room, which is regarded as 
50 



394 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AXE DESCRIPTIVE. 



a gem in its way and has a most magnificent fireplace, there are some thirteen 
other paintings by Vandyke. Other paintings by Italian masters are also dis- 
tributed on the walls of the various apartments, but the Vandykes are regarded 
as the gems of the collection. The library is a large and lofty apartment, with 
an oak-panelled ceiling, and a fine collection of volumes with appropriate fur- 
nishing. Out of the library window the western 
view over the terrace discloses charming pleasure- 
grounds, laid out in the Italian style from designs by 
a former Countess of Pembroke, while in the back- 
ground is a beautiful porch constructed by Holbein. 
To the gardens, summer-houses and conservatories 
add their attractions, while beyond is the valley of 
the Nadder, over which a picturesque bridge leads 
to the park. This bridge has an Ionic colonnade, 
and in the park are some of the finest cedars to be 
seen in the kingdom. Here, it is said, Sir Philip Sid- 
ney wrote Arcadia, and the work shows that he drew 
much inspiration from these gardens and grounds, for 
it abounds in lifelike descriptions of Nature. 
At Wilton also lived George Herbert the poet, and later Sidney Herbert, who 
was afterwards made Lord Herbert of Lea, and whose son is now the thirteenth 
Earl of Pembroke. A statue of Sidney Herbert has already been referred to 
as standing in Pall Mall, London, and another is in Salisbury. He was secre- 
tary of war, yet was the gentle and genial advocate of peace and charity to all 
mankind, and his premature death was regarded as a public calamity. He 
erected in 1844 the graceful New Church at Wilton. It was the Earls of Pem- 
broke in the last century who were chiefly instrumental in bringing the manu- 
facturers ol fine carpets over from Erance and Flanders and laying the foun- 
dation of that trade, in which England now far surpasses those countries. The 
factory at Axminster, on the southern coast, was also afterwards transferred to 
Wilton. These carpets are all hand-made, and the higher class, which are an 
inch or more in thickness and of the softness of down when trod upon, are 
also of the most gorgeous design and brilliancy of colors. 




LIBRARY WINDOW. 



BATH. 

Crossing over the hills to the north-west of Salisbury Plain, we descend to 
the attractive valley of another river Avon, and come to the "Queen of all 
the Spas in the World," the city of Bath. It is the chief town of Somerset- 
shire, and is surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills. The abbey and principal 



BATH. 395 

streets are in the valley, while above, on its northern slope, rise terraces and 
crescents, tier upon tier, to a height ot nearly eight hundred feet, the .most 
conspicuous being the Royal and the Lansdowne Crescents. Many of the 
buildings are handsome, and are constructed of the white great-oolite, known 
as bath-stone. To its waters this famous resort owes its importance, but from 
an insignificant place Bath has risen to the highest point of popularity as a 
fashionable watering-place and in architectural magnificence through the genius 
of Architect Wood and Master-of-Ceremonies Beau Nash. The legendary king 
Bladud is said to have first discovered the Bath waters twenty-seven hundred 
years ago, and to have built a town there and dedicated the medicinal springs 
to Minerva, so that " Bladud' s Well " has passed into a proverb of sparkling 
inexhaustibility. The Romans, passionately attached to the luxury of the hot 
springs, made Bath one of their chief stations, and here and in the neighbor- 
hood the foundations of their extensive buildings have been traced, with the 
remains of altars, baths, tessellated pavements, and ornaments, and tew British 
towns can produce such a collection of Roman relics. In the height of the 
Roman power in the fifth century the city extended nearly three miles along 
the valley, and was surrounded by a wall twenty feet high and nine feet thick. 
Such a fascinating spot was naturally selected for the foundation of a religious 
house at an early period, and we consequently find that the abbey of Bath 
was built by King Offa in the eighth century, and refounded by King Edgar in 
the tenth century. It existed until the dissolution in 1539. The church fill 
into decay in the reign of Henry VII., and the present abbey-church was then 
built, being for a long time unfinished. It has recently been restored. It 
stands at the southern extremity of High Street, and is a fine specimen of 
Perpendicular Gothic, the plan being a cross, with a tower at the intersection 
rising one hundred and sixty-two feet and flanked by octagonal turrets. The 
church is two hundred and ten feet long, and has a fan-traced, stone-vaulted 
roof seventv-eieht feet high, while the western front contains a magnificent 
window flanked by turrets carved with angels, who are ascending and descend- 
ing, but have, unfortunately, all lost their heads. The Pump Room, which is 
one of the chief buildings, is a classical structure with a Corinthian portico 
bearing the motto, " Water, best of elements !" A band plays in the spa- 
cious saloon, which also contains a statue of the genius of Bath, Beau Nash, 
whose monument is in the abbey-church. Here the waters, which are the 
hottest in England, reaching a temperature of 1 20°, tumble continually from a 
drinking-fountain into a serpentine basin beneath. There are numerous other 
baths replete with comforts for the invalid, for this is essentially a hospital town, 
and the city also contains many stately public and private buildings, and its 



596 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AXD DESCRIPTIVE. 



Victoria Park and Sydney Gardens are beautiful and popular resorts. The wild 
scenery of the neighborhood provides myriads of attractive drives and walks, 
while on top of Lansdowne Hill, where Beckford is buried, is his tower, one 
hundred and fifty feet high and commanding extensive views. The Bath 
waters, which are alkaline-sulphurous with a slight proportion of iron, are con- 
sidered beneficial for palsy, rheumatism, gout, and scrofulous and cutaneous 
affections. The chief spring discharges one hundred and twenty-eight gallons 
a minute. While a hundred years ago Bath was at the height of its celebrity, 
the German spas have since diverted part of the stream of visitors. 

FONTHILL AND BECKFORD. 

It was at Bath that Pitt and Sheridan lived, but its most eccentric resident 
was William Beckford, the author of Vathek, who came to Bath from Fonthill, 
not far from Salisbury. His father, a London alderman, owned Fonthill, and 
died in 1770, leaving his son William, aged ten, with $5,000,000 ready money 
and $500,000 annual income. He wrote Vathek in early life after extensive 
travels, but founded its scenes and characters upon places and people at Font- 
hill. He then began building Fonthill Abbey, shrouding his proceedings in 
the greatest mystery and surrounding his estate with a wall twelve feet high 
and seven miles long, guarded by chevaux-de-frise to keep out intruders. The 
building of the abbey was to him a romance pursued with wild enthusiasm. 
So anxious was he to get it finished that he employed relays of men, working 
d«i)' and night and throughout Sunday, keeping them liberally supplied with 
liquor. The first tower was built of wood, four hundred feet high, to see its 
effect, and it was then taken down and the same form put up in wood covered 
with cement. This fell down, and the third tower was built of masonry. When 
the idea of the abbey occurred to Beckford he was extending a small summer- 
house, but he was in such a hurry that he would not remove the summer-house 
to make a proper foundation for the tower, but carried it up on the walls already 
standing, the work being done in wretched style and chiefly by semi-drunken 
men. He employed five hundred men day and night at the work, and once 
the torches used set fire to the tower at the top, a sight that he greatly enjoyed. 
Beckford lived at the abbey, practically a hermit, for nearly twenty years, but 
his fortunes being impaired he removed to Bath in 1S22. Preparatory to sell- 
ing Fonthill, he opened the long-sealed place to public exhibition at a guinea a 
licket, and sold seventy-two hundred tickets. Then for thirty seven days he 
conducted an auction-sale of the treasures at Fonthill, chareino- a half-o-uinea 
admission. He ultimately sold the estate for $1 ,750,000. In 1S25 the tower, 
which had been insecurelv built, fell with a great crash, and so frio-htened the 



BRISTOL. 397 



new owner, who was an invalid, that, though unhurt by the disaster, he died 
soon afterwards. The estate was again sold and the abbey taken down, so 
that now only the foundations can be traced. 

BRISTOL. 

Proceeding about twelve miles down the beautiful valley of the Avon, we 
come to its junction with the Frome, where is located the ancient city and 
port of Bristol, the capital of the west of England. A magnificent suspension- 
bridge spans the gorge of the Avon, connecting Bristol with its suburb of 
Clifton, and it is believed that the earliest settlements by the Romans were on 
the heights of Clifton and the adjoining Brandon Hill. The Saxons called it 
Bright-stow, or the "Illustrious City;" from this the name changed to Bristow, 
as it was known in the twelfth century, and Bristold in the reign of Henry 111. 
When the original owners concluded that it was time to come down from the 
hills, they founded the city in the valley at the junction of the two rivers. A 
market-cross was erected where the main streets joined, and Bristow Castle 
was built at the eastern extremity, where the Avon makes a right-angled bend. 
The town was surrounded with walls, and in the thirteenth century the course 
of the Frome was diverted in order to make a longer quay and get more room 
for buildings. Few traces remain of the old castle, but portions of the ancient 
walls can still be seen. In the fifteenth century the city-walls were described 
as lofty and massive and protected by twenty-five embattled towers, some 
round and some square. The abbey of St. Augustine was also then flourish- 
ing, having been founded in the twelfth century. Bristol was in the Middle 
Ages the second port of England, enjoying lucrative trade with all parts of 
the world, and in the fifteenth century a Bristol ship carrying nine hundred tons 
was looked upon with awe as a leviathan of the ocean. Sebastian Cabot, the 
great explorer, was a native of Bristol, and his expeditions were fitted out there, 
and it was Bristol that in 1838 built and sent out the first English steamer that 
crossed the Atlantic, the Great Western. It still enjoys a lucrative trade, and 
has recently opened new docks at the mouth of the Avon, seven miles below 
the city, so that this venerable port may be considered as renewing its 
prosperous career. It has over two hundred thousand population, and in 
past times had the honor of being represented in Parliament by Edmund 
Burke. When ancient Bristol was in its heyday, Macaulay says the streets 
were so narrow that a coach or cart was in danger of getting wedged 
between the buildings or falling into the cellars. Therefore, goods were 
conveyed about the town almost exclusively in trucks drawn by dogs, and 
the wealthy inhabitants exhibited their riches not by riding in gilded car- 



398 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



riages, but by walking about the streets followed by a train of servants in 
gorgeous liveries and by keeping tables laden with good cheer. The pomp 
of christenings and funerals then tar exceeded anything seen in any other 
part of England, and the hospitality of the city was widely renowned. This 
was especially the case with the banquets given by the guild of sugar-refiners, 
where the drink was a rich beverage made of Spanish wine and known as 
"Bristol milk." In 1831 the opposition of the Recorder of Bristol to the 
Reform Bill resulted in serious riots, causing a great fire that burned the 
Mansion House and a large number of other prominent buildings. The 




BRISTOL CATHEDRAL, FROM COLLEGE GREEN. 

troops suppressed the riots after shooting several rioters, and four were after- 
wards hanged and twenty-six transported. The city has since enjoyed a tran- 
quil history. 

Bristol Cathedral was the convent-church of St. Augustine's Abbey, and 
was begun in the twelfth century. It formerly consisted only of the choir 
and transepts, the nave having been destroyed in the fifteenth century, but the 
nave was rebuilt in uniform style with the remainder of the church in 1S76. 
The cathedral presents a mixture of architectural styles, and in it are the 
tombs of the l£arls ot Berkeley, who were its benefactors for generations. Among 
them was Maurice, Lord Berkeley, who died in 1368 from wounds received at 
Poictiers. The abbot, John Newland, or Nail-heart, was also a benefactor of 
the abbey, and is said to have erected the- magnificent Norman doorway to 
the west of it leading to the college green. The most attractive portion of the 



BRISTOL. 



399 



interior of the cathedral is the north aisle of the choir, known as the Berkeley 
Chapel, a beautiful specimen of Early English style. The side-aisles of the 
choir are of the same height as the central aisle, and in the transepts are 
monuments to Bishop Butler, author of the Analogy, and to Robert Southey, 
who was a native of Bristol. 
This cathedral is not yet 
complete, the external or- 
namentation of the nave 
and the upper portions of 
the western towers being 
unfinished. Eorty - seven 
bishops have sat upon the 
episcopal throne of Bristol. 
The old market-cross, which 
stood for lour centuries in 
Bristol, was removed in the 
last century, but in i860 it 
was replaced by a modern 
one erected upon the col- 
lege green. The church ot 
St. Mary Redcliffe, standing 
upon a red sandstone rock 
on the south side of the 
Avon, is the finest church 
in Bristol, and Chatterton 
calls it the " Pride of Bris- 
towe and Western Eonde." It is an Early Perpendicular structure, two hun- 
dred and thirty-one feet long, with a steeple rising over two hundred feet, 
founded in the twelfth century, but enlarged and rebuilt in the fifteenth century 
by William Canynge, who was then described as "the richest merchant ot 
Bristow, and chosen five times mayor of the said town." He and his wife Joan 
have their monuments ir? the church, and upon his tomb is inscribed the list 
ot his ships. He entered holy orders in his declining years, and founded .1 
college at Westbury, whither he retired. It has for many years been the custom 
for the mayor and corporation of Bristol to attend this church on Whitsunday in 
state, when the pavement is strewn with rushes and the building decorated with 
flowers. In the western entrance is suspended a bone of a large whale, which, 
according to tradition, is the rib of the dun cow that anciently supplied Bristol 
with her milk. Sebastian Cabot, in all probability, presented the city with this 




NORMAN DOORWAV, COLLEGE GREEN. 






\, v£> VKESQ* \ND ■ ■ UPTIVE. 



bone after his discover} oi Newfoundland, rhe chiel popular interest in St. 
Man Redcliffe, however, is its connection with ["nomas Chatterton, born in a 
neighboring street in 1752, the son of a humble schoolmaster, who ultimately 
weni up to 1 ondon to write for the booksellers, and there committed suicide 
at tlu' earh ao~e of seventeen. A monument to this precocious genius, who 
claimed to have recovered ancient manuscripts from the church-archives, stands 
in the churchyard. Bristol is full of old and quaint churches and narrow yet 
picturesque streets, with lofty gabled timber housi 

I h "Teat crorc^e of the Avon, five hundred feet deep, is, however, its most 





-nU-r 



CI IFTON Sl'SPl S • . •' 

attractive possession 1 ho suspension bridge, erected by the munificence oi a 

en, spans this gorge at the height oi two hundred .u\d eighty seven I 
and cost nearl) $5 It is twelve hundred and twenty feet long, and has 

a single span of seven hundred and thn crossing the ravine between 

S \ icent's Rocks and the I eigh Woods. Alongside this c i>1 ",^o' rises Bran- 
don Hill, which Queen Elizabeth sold to two citizens of Bristol, who in turn 
sold it to the city, with a proviso that the corporation should there "admit the 
drying ol clothes by th omen, as had been accustomed ;" and to this 

in western 1 : !1 used as a clothes-drying ground. From this the 

tradition arose — which, .0! denounce-, as a libel — "that the queen 

gave the use ol this hill to po men's daughters a-- a dowry, because she 

took corn pa >n the m s which she saw in one of her visits." 

S ie hot springs issut S \ icent's Rocks, And these give Clifton fame 



WELLS. 



401 



as a watering-place. A fine pump-house has been built there, and the waters 
are said to be useful in pulmonary complaints. From this beginning large and 
ornamental suburbs have Keen terraced on the rocks and hills above thi 
springs, while on the summit is an observatory. There is a hermitage cave 
o! great antiquity carved in the perpendicular lace of the rock just above the 
river, and known as the " Giant's Mole." The entire neighborhood is full of 
charming scenery, and thus the ancient port presents varied attractions, com 
bining business profit with recreation, while from the hilltops then- are glorious 
views extending far down Bristol Channel to the dim hills of South Wales. 



WELLS. 
Proceeding southward into Somersetshire, we arrive at the cathedral 1 it) 01 
Wells, which is united with Bath in the well-known bishopric of Bath and 
Wells, and is considered the most 

completely representative ecclc- 

siastical city in England. It gets 
its name from its numerous 
springs, taking their rise from 
the wells in the Bishop's Gar- 
den, where the)' form a lake; 
of great beauty, while bright, 
clear water runs through va- 
rious streets ol the town. Alter 
leaving the edge ol the Bristol 
Channel the plain ol the Som- 
ersetshire lowlands is bordered 
by rocky uplands, ol which the 
most important is the elevated 
plateau known as the Mendip 
I lills, carved on the outside 
with winding valleys having pre- 
cipitous sides. Wells nestles in 
a wide grassy basin at the loot 
of the Mendips, its entire his- 
tory being ecclesiastical, and 
that not very eventful. It never had a castle, and no defensive works beyond 
the wall and moat enclosing the bishop's palace. It seems to have had its 
origin from the Romans, who worked lead-mines among the Mendips, but the 
first tact actually known about it is that the Saxon king Ina established here a 




wills CATHEDRAL, l-'HnM THE HIMUH's GARDEN. 



402 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



house of secular canons " near a spring dedicated to St. Andrew." It grew in 
importance and privileges until it became a bishopric, there having been fifteen 
bishops prior to the Norman Conquest. The double title of Bishop of Bath 
and Wells was first assumed in the days of King Stephen. In looking at the 
town from a distance two buildings rise conspicuously — the belfry of St. Cuth- 
bert's Church and the group of triple towers crowning the cathedral. There 
are few aggregations of ecclesiastical buildings in England that surpass those of 
Wells, with the attractive gateways and antique houses of the close, the grand 




WELLS CATHEDRAL, FROM THE SWAN POOL. 



facade of the cathedral, and the episcopal palace with its ruined banquet-hall and 
surrounding moat. From the ancient market-square of the city, stone gate- 
ways surmounted by gray towers give access, one to the close and the other 
to the enclosure of the palace. Entering the close, the western front of the 
cathedral is seen, the most beautiful facade of its kind in Britain — an exquisite 
piece of Early English architecture, with Perpendicular towers and unrivalled 
sculptures rising tier upon tier, with architectural accompaniments such as 
are only to be found at Chartres or Rheims. The old Saxon cathedral 
lasted until Bishop Jocelyn's time in the thirteenth century, when he began a 
systematic rebuilding, which was not finished until the days of Bishop Beck- 
ington in the fifteenth century, who completed the gateways and cloisters. 
Entering the cathedral, the strange spectacle is at once seen of singular 



WELLS. 



403 



inverted arches under the central tower, forming a cross of St. Andrew, to 
whom the building- is dedicated. These arches were inserted subsequently to 
the erection of the tower to strengthen its supports — an ingenious contrivance 
not without a certain beauty. The choir 
is peculiar and beautiful, and produces 
a wonderful effect, clue to its groups of 
arches, the Lady Chapel and retro-choir, 
and the rich splendors of the stained 
glass. The chapter-house, north-east of 
the northern transept, is built over a crypt, 
and is octagonal in plan, the roof sup- 
ported by a central column, while the crypt 
beneath has an additional ring of columns. 
The cloisters are south of the cathedral, 
having three walks, with galleries above 
the eastern and western walks, the former 
being the library. Through the eastern 
wall of the cloisters a door leads to a 
private garden, in which and in the Bishop's 
Garden adjoining are the wells that name 
the city. The most important of these is 
St. Andrew's Well, whence a spring issues 
into a large pool. The water from the 
wells falls by two cascades into the surrounding moat, and a conduit also takes 
away some of it to supply the town. From the edge of the pool is the most 
striking view of the cathedral. 

The close is surrounded by various ancient houses, and the embattled wall 
with its bastioned towers and moat encloses about fifteen acres. Here is the 
gateway known as the " Bishop's Eye," and another called the " Dean's Eye," 
the deanery where Henry VII. was entertained in 1497, the archdeanery, com- 
ing down from the thirteenth century, ami the beautiful Chain Gate in the 
north-east corner that connects the cathedral with the Vicar's Close. The 
latter, one of the most peculiar features of Wells, is a long and narrow court 
entered through an archway, and having ancient houses with modernized fit- 
tings on either hand. Bishop Ralph of Shrewsbury erected this close in the 
fourteenth century, and his monumental inscription in the cathedral tells us he 
was a great sportsman, who "destroyed by hunting all the wild beasts of the 
great forest of Cheddar." The moat and wall completely surround the 
bishop's palace, and its northern front overhangs the moat, where an oriel 




VIEW UNDER CENTRAL TOWER, WELLS 
CATHEDRAL. 



404 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



window is pointed out as the room where Bishop Kidder and his wife were 
killed by the tailing of a stack of chimneys upon their bed, blown down by 
the terrible gale of 1703 that swept away the Eddystone Lighthouse. It was 
Bishop Ralph who made the walls and moat as a defence against the monks 
of Bath, who had threatened to kill him; Bishop Jocelyn built the palace. 
Adjoining it is the great banquet-hall, of which only the northern and western 
walls remain, in ruins. It was a magnificent hall, destroyed from mere greed. 




RUINS OF THE OLD HANQUET-H A [.I. 

Alter the alienation of the monasteries it fell into the hands of Sir John Gates, 
who tore it partly down to sell the materials; but happily, as the antiquarian 
relates, Gates was beheaded in 1553 for complicity in Lady Jane Grey's attempt 
to reach the throne, and the desecration was stopped. Afterwards, Parliament 
sold Wells for a nominal price to Dr. Burgess, and he renewed the spoliation, 
but, fortunately again, the Restoration came ; he had to give up his spoils, 
and died in jail. Thus was the remnant of the ruin saved. It was in this 
hall that Whiting, the last abbot of Glastonbury, was condemned, and hanged 
on Tor Hill above his own abbey. The great bishops of Wells were the epis- 
copal Nimrod Ralph, and Beckington, who left his mark so strongly on the 
cathedral and town. He was a weaver's son, born at the village of becking- 
ton, near the town of Frome, and from it got his name. Hadrian de Castello, 
who had a romantic history, became bishop of Wells in 1504. Pope Alexan- 
der VI. made him a cardinal, and afterwards tried to poison him with some 
others at a banquet; by mistake the pope himself drank of the poisoned wine. 



WELLS. 



405 



and died. The bishop afterwards entered into a conspiracy against Leo X., 
but, being detected, escaped from Rome in disguise and disappeared. Wolsey 
was Bishop of Wells at one time, but the most illustrious prelate who held the 
see after the Reformation was Thomas Ken. He was educated at Winchester, 
and afterwards became a prebend of the cathedral there. Charles II. paid a 
visit to Winchester, and, bringing Nell Gwynne with him, Ken was asked to 
allow her to occupy his house. He flatly refused, which had just the opposite 
effect upon the king to that which would be supposed, for he actually respected 
Ken for it, and when the see of Wells became vacant he offered it to "the 
little fellow who would not give poor Nelly a lodging." Ken attended the 
king's deathbed shortly afterwards. He was very popular in the diocese, and 
after the Sedgemoor battle he succored the fugitives, and with the Bishop of 
Ely gave spiritual consolation to the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth on the 
scaffold. Ken was one of the six bishops committed by lames II. to the Tower, 
but, strangely enough, he declined to take the oaths of allegiance to William III., 
and, being deprived of preferment, retired to the home of his nephew, Izaak 
Walton. All reverence his sanctity and courage, and admire his morning and 
evening hymns, written in a summer-house in the Bishop's Garden. 








ENTRANCE lc> THE CHEDDAR CLIFFS. 



The Mendip Hills, with their picturesque gorges and winding valleys, were 
formerly a royal forest. It was here that King Edmund was hunting the red 
deer when his horse took fright and galloped towards the brow of the highest 
part of the Cheddar Cliffs. Shortly before, the king had quarrelled with Dun- 



406 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



stan, and expelled the holy man from his court. As the horse galloped with 
him to destruction, he vowed if" preserved to make amends. The horse halted 
on the brink as if checked by an unseen hand, and the king immediately sought 

Dunstan and made 
him abbot of Glaston- 
bury. These hills 
were the haunt of the 
fiercest wild beasts in 
England, and their 
caves still furnish 
relics of lions to a 
larger extent than any 
other part of the king- 
dom. The most re- 
markable deposit of 
these bones is in the 
Wookey Hole, on the 
southern edge of the 
Mendips, about two 
miles from Wells. At 
the head of a short 
and picturesque glen, 
beneath an ivy - fes- 
tooned cliff, is a cavern 
whence the river Axe 
issues and Hows down 
the glen. The cave 
that disclosed the ani- 
mal bones is on the 
left bank of the glen, 
and was but recently 
discovered in making 
a mill-race. It also 
contained about three 
hundred old Roman 
coins, rude (lint implements, and skeletons of a mammoth and woolly rhinoce- 
ros. The larger cave, which is hung with fine stalactites, can be explored for 
some distance. Near the entrance is a mass of rock known as the Witch of 
Wookey, who was turned into stone there by a timely prayer from a monk 




II ll.II ROCKS AT CHEDDAR 



GLAS TONE UR V. 40 J 



who opportunely arrived from Glastonbury. The underground course of the 
Axe in and beyond this cave is traced for at least two miles. The Mendips 
contain other pretty glens and gorges, and from the summit of their cliffs can 
be seen the valley of the Axe winding away southward, while to the westward 
the scene broadens into the level plains that border the Bristol Channel, 
guarded on cither side by the hills of Exmoor and of Wales. Little villages 
cluster around the bases of the hills, the most noted being Cheddar, famous 
for its cheese, straggling about the entrance to a gorge in which caves are 
numerous, each closed by a door, where an admission-fee is charged. Some 
of them are lighted with gas and entered upon paved paths. Lead- and zinc- 
mines are worked in the glens, and above Cheddar rises the Black Down to a 
height of eleven hundred feet, the most elevated summit of the Mendips. 

GLASTONBURY. 

About six miles south-west of Wells is the ancient Isle of Avelon, where St. 
Patrick is said to have spent the closing years of his life, and where are the 
ruins of one of the earliest and most extensive religious houses in England — 
Glastonbury Abbey. A sixpence is charged to visit the ruins, which adjoin the 
chief street, but the remnants of the vast church, that was nearly six hundred feet 
long, are scanty. Of the attendant buildings there only remain the abbot's kitch- 
en and an adjoining gateway, now converted into an inn. This kitchen is about 
thirty-four feet square within the walls and seventy-two feet high. The church 
ruins include some of the walls and tower-foundations, with a well-preserved 
and exceedingly rich chapel dedicated to St. Joseph. On the High Street is 
the old George Inn, which was the hostelrie for the pilgrims, built in tin- reign 
of Edward IV. and still used. It is fronted by a splendid mass of panelling, 
and the central gateway has a bay-window alongside rising the entire height 
of the house. The church of St. John the Baptist in Glastonbury has a fine 
tower, elevated one hundred and forty feet and richly adorned with canopied 
niches, being crowned by an open-work parapet and slender pinnacles. Almost 
the entire town of Glastonbury is either constructed from spoils of the abbey 
or else is made up of parts of its buildings. One of the most characteristic 
of the preserved buildings is the Tribunal, now a suite ot lawyers' offices. 
Its deeply-recessed lower windows and the oriel above have a venerable 
appearance, while beyond rises the tower of St. John the Baptist. Behind the 
town is the "Weary-all Hill," from which arose the foundation of the monas- 
tery. Tradition tells that Joseph of Arimathea, toiling up the steep ascent, 
drove his thorn staff into the ground and said to his followers that they would 
rest there. The thorn budded, and still flowers, it is said, in winter. This was 



4o8 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



regarded as an omen, and they constructed the abbey there around the chapel 
of St. Joseph. The ponderous abbot's kitchen, we are told, was built by the 

last abbot, who boasted, when Henry 
VIII. threatened to burn the monas- 
tery, that he would have a kitchen that 
all the wood in Mendip Forest could 
not burn down. King Arthur was 
buried at Glastonbury, and a veracious 
historian in the twelfth century wrote 
that he was present at the disinterment 
of the remains of the king and his wife. 
"The shin-bone of the king," he says, 
" when placed side by side with that 
of a tall man, reached three fingers 
above his knee, and his skull was fear- 
fully wounded." The remains of King 
Arthur's wife, which were quite per- 
fect, fell into dust upon exposure to 
the air. 

SED G E M O R B A T T I. E I" I E I. D . 
Proceeding westward towards the 
glastonbury tribunal, Bristol Channel, the low and marshy 

plain of Sedgemoor is reached. Much of it is reclaimed from the sea, and here 
and there the surface is broken by isolated knolls, there being some two hun- 
dred square miles of this region, with the range of Polden Hills extending 
through it and rising in some places three hundred feet high. In earlier times 
this was an exact reproduction of the Cambridgeshire fenland, and then, we 
are told, 

" The flood of the Severn Sea flowed over half the plain, 
And .i hundred capes, with huts and trees, above the flood remain; 
'Tis water here and water there, and the lordly Parrett's way 
Hath never a trace on its pathless face, as in the former day." 

It is changed now, being thoroughly drained, but in the days of the Saxons 
the river Parrett was the frontier of Wessex, and one of its districts sheltered 
Alfred from the first onset of the Danish invasion when he retreated to the 
tastnesses of the Isle of Athelney. In the epoch of the Normans and in the 
Civil War there was fighting all along the Parrett. After the defeat at Naseby 
the Royalists, under Lord Goring, on July 10, 1645, m ^t their foes on tlv bank 




SEDGEMOOR BA TTLEFIELD. 



409 



of the Barrett, near Langport, were defeated and put to flight, losing four- 
teen thousand prisoners, and the king's troops never made a stand afterwards. 
Bridgwater is a quiet town of about twelve thousand people on the Parrett, 
a halt dozen miles from the sea, and in its churchyard reposes Oldmixon, who 
was made collector of customs here as a reward for his abusive writings, in the 
course of which he virulently attacked Pope. The poet retorted by giving 







SEDGEMOOR, FKOM COCK HILL. 

Oldmixon a prominent place in the Dunciad, 

where at a diving-match in the putrid waters 

of Fleet Ditch, which " rolls the large tribute 

of dead dogs to the Thames," the heroes are bidden to " prove who best can 

dash through thick and thin, and who the most in love of dirt excel." And 

thus the Bridgwater collector: 

" In naked majesty Oldmixon stands. 
And Milo-like surveys his arms and bands, 
Then sighing thus, ' And am I now threescore ? 
And why ye gods should two and two make four ?' 
He said, and climbed a stranded lighter's height, 
Shot to the black abyss, and plunged downright." 

In the Market Inn at Bridgwater Admiral Blake was born, who never held a 
naval command until past the age of fifty, and then triumphed over the Dutch 
and the Spaniards, disputing Van Tromp's right to hoist a broom at his mast- 
head, and burned the Spanish fleet in the harbor of Santa Cruz. He was 
buried in Westminster Abbey, but Charles II. ejected his bones. Bridgwater 
is now chiefly noted for its bath bricks, made of a mixture of clay and sand 
deposited near there by the tidal currents. 



410 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



It was from the Bridgwater church-tower that the unfortunate son of Charles 
II. and Lucy Walters, who had been proclaimed " King Monmouth," looked out 
upon the grassy plains towards the eastward before venturing the last contest 
for the kingdom. This view is over Sedgemoor, the scene of the last fight 
deserving: the name of a battle that has been fought on British ground. It is 
a lone tract of morass lying between the foot of the Polden Hills and the 
Barrett River, but with a fringe of somewhat higher ground along the latter, 
where are Weston Zoyland, Chedzoy, and Middlezoy, each a hamlet clustering 
around its old church, that at Weston Zoyland being surmounted by an attract- 
ive square tower over one hundred feet 
high. Monmouth had been proclaimed 
king by the mayor and corporation 
of Bridgwater June 21, 1685, but A 
had been checked at Bath, and ^ 
fell back again to Bridgwater, 
where his army was encamp- jjj 




WESTON ZOYLAND CHURCH. 



ed on the Castle Field. He had been three weeks in the kingdom without 
marked success, and the royal army was closing in upon him. hour thou- 
sand troops under Lord Feversham marched westward, and on the Sunday 
evening of July 5th, when Monmouth looked out from the tower, had encamped 
upon Sedgemoor about three miles from Bridgwater. Monmouth had seven 
thousand men to oppose them, but his forces were mostly undisciplined and 
badly armed, some having only scythes fastened on poles. The moor was 
then partly reclaimed and intersected by trenches, and Feversham's head- 
quarters was at Weston Zoyland, where the royal cavalry were encamped, 



SEDGEMOOR BATTLEFIELD. 41 I 

with the other troops at Middlezoy and Chedzoy beyond. Monmouth saw 
that their divisions were somewhat separated, and that his only hope was a 
night-attack. At midnight he started, marching his army by a circuitous route 
to the royal camp, strict silence being observed and not a drum beaten or a 
shot fired. Three ditches had to be crossed to reach the camp, two of which 
Monmouth knew of, but he was unfortunately ignorant of the third, called the 
Bussex Rhine, behind which the camp had been made. A fog came down over 
the moor; the first ditch was crossed successfully, but the guide missing his 
way caused some confusion before the second was reached, during which a 
pistol was discharged that aroused a sentinel, who rode off and gave the 
alarm. As the royal drums beat to arms Monmouth rapidly advanced, when 
he suddenly found himself checked by the Bussex Rhine, behind which the 
royal army was forming in line of battle in the fog. " For whom are you ?" de- 
manded a royal officer. " For the king," replied a voice from the rebel cavalry. 
" For what king?" was demanded. The answer was a shout for " King Mon- 
mouth," mingled with Cromwell's old war-cry of " God with us!" Immediately 
the royal troops replied with a terrific volley of musketry that sent the rebel 
cavalry Hying in all directions. Monmouth, then coming up with the infantry, 
was startled to find the broad ditch in front of him. His troops halted on the 
edge, and for three quarters of an hour the opposing forces fired volleys at 
each other across the ditch. But the end was not far off. John Churchill was 
a subordinate in the royal army and formed its line of battle, thus indicating 
the future triumphs of the Duke of Marlborough. Then the royal cavalry 
came up, and in a few minutes the rebels were routed, and Monmouth, seeing 
all was lost, rode from the field. His foot-soldiers, with their scythes and butt- 
ends of muskets, made a gallant stand, fighting like old soldiers, though their 
ammunition was all gone. To conquer them the artillery were brought up, for 
which service the Bishop of Winchester loaned his coach-horses. The cannon 
were ill served, but routed the rebels, and then the infantry poured over the 
ditch and put them to flight. The king lost three hundred killed and wounded; 
the rebel loss was at least a thousand slain, while there was little mercy for the 
survivors. The sun rose over a field of carnage, with the king's cavalry hack- 
ing and hewing among their fleeing foes. Monmouth, with one or two fol- 
lowers, was by this time far away among the hills, but was afterwards captured 
in the New Forest, and ended his life on the scaffold. The Sedgemoor carnage 
went on all the morning; the fugitives poured into Bridgwater with the pur- 
suers at their heels ; five hundred prisoners were crowded into Weston Zoy- 
land Church, and the next day a long row of gibbets appeared on the road 
between tin- town and the church. Bridgwater suffered under a reign of 



412 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



terror from Colonel Kirke and his "Lambs," who put a hundred prisoners to 
death during the week following the battle, and treated the others with great 
cruelty. Then [udge Jeffreys came there to execute judicial tortures, and by 
his harsh and terrible administration of the law, and his horrible cruelties and 
injustice, gained the reputation that has ever since been execrated. 

Six miles southeast of Bridgwater is the Isle of Athelney, a peninsula in 
the marsh between the Parrett and the Tone. Here King Alfred sought 
refuge from the Danes until he could get time to mature the plans that ulti- 
mately drove them from his kingdom. It was while here that the incident ol 
the burned cakes occurred. The king was disguised as a peasant, and, living 
in a swineherd's cottage, performed various menial offices. The good wile 




I 111. [SLE OF ATHELNEY. 



lett him in charge ol some cakes that were baking, with instructions to turn 
them at the proper time. His mind wandered in thought and he forgot his 
trust. The good wile returned, found the cakes burning, and the guest dream- 
ing by the fireside ; she lost her temper, and expressed a decided opinion about 
the lazy lout who was ready enough to eat, but less ready to work. In the 
seventeenth century there was found in the marshes here a jewel that Alfred 
had lost: it is of gold anil enamel, bearing words signifying, "Alfred had me 
wrought." The following spring (878) he sallied forth, defeated the Danes in 
Wiltshire, ami captured their king Guthram, who was afterwards baptized near 
Athelney by the name of /luhelstan ; they still show his baptismal font in Aller 
Church, near by. 



SHERBORNE. 



4>3 



SHERBORNE. 

Crossing over from Somersetshire into Dorsetshire, we arrive in the north- 
ern part of that county at Sherborne, which was one of the earliest religious 
establishments in this 
part of England, hav- 
ing been founded by 
King Ina in the eighth 
century. Here was the 
see that was removed 
to Old Sarum in the 
eleventh century, and 
subsequently to Salis- 
bury. After the re- 
moval, Sherborne be- 
came an abbey, and 
its remains are to be 
seen in the parish 
church, which still ex- 
ists, of Norman archi- 
tecture, and having a 
low central tower 
supported by massive 
piers. The porch is 
almost all that sur- 
vives of the original 
structure, the remain- 
der having been burn- 
ed in 1436, but after- 
wards restored. With- 
in this church are 
buried the Saxon 
kings .Hthelbald and 
^Ethelbert, the broth- 
ers of King Alfred. 
Such oi the domestic buildings of the abbey as have been preserved are now 
the well-known Sherborne Grammar-School. The great bell of the abbey was 
given it by Cardinal Wolsey, and weighed sixty thousand pounds. It bears 
this motto : 




SHERBORNE. 



414 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 

" By Wolsey's gift I measure time for all ; 
To mirth, to grief, to church, I serve to call." 

It was unfortunately cracked in 1858, but has been recast. The chief fame of 
Sherborne, however, is as the home ot Sir Walter Raleigh, of whom Napier 
says that his "fortunes were alike remarkable for enviable success and pitiable 
reverses. Raised to eminent station through the favor of the greatest female 
sovereign of England, he perished on the scaffold through the dislike and 
cowardly policy of the meanest of her kings." The original castle of Sher- 
borne was built in the reign of Henry I., and its owner bestowed it upon the 
bishopric of Old Sarum with certain lands, accompanying the gift with a per- 
petual curse " that whosoever should take these lands from the bishopric, or 
diminish them in great or small, should be accursed, not only in this world, 
but in the world to come, unless in his lifetime he made restitution thereof." 
Herein tradition says was the seed of Raleigh's misfortunes. King Stephen 
dispossessed the lands, and gave them to the Montagues, who met with grievous 
disasters, the estate ultimately reverting to the Church. In Edward VI.'s reign 
Sherborne was conveyed to the Duke of Somerset, but he was beheaded. 
Again they reverted to the Church, until one day Raleigh, journeying from 
Plymouth to London, the ancient historian says, " the castle being right in the 
way, he cast such an eye upon it as Ahab did upon Naboth's vineyard, and 
once, above the rest, being talking of it, of the commodiousness of the place, 
and of the great strength of the seat, and how easily it might be got from the 
bishopric, suddenly over and over came his horse, that his very face (which 
was then thought a very good one) ploughed up the earth where he fell. This 
tail was ominous, and no question he was apt to consider it so." But Raleigh 
did not falter, notwithstanding the omen. He beowd and obtained the erant 
of the castle from Queen Elizabeth, and then married Elizabeth Throgmorton 
and returned there, building himself a new house surrounded by ornamental 
gardens and orchards. He settled the estate ultimately upon his son, but his 
enemies got King James to take it away and give it to a young Scotch favorite, 
Robert Carr, afterwards Earl of Somerset. Lady Raleigh upon her knees, 
with her children, appealed to James not to do this, but it was of no avail. 
The king only answered, "I mini have the land; I mtin have it for Carr." She 
was a woman of high spirit, and while still on her knees she prayed God to 
punish those who had wrongfully exposed her and her children to ruin. Carr 
met with constant misfortunes, being ultimately implicated in a murder and 
imprisoned. James's son Charles, afterwards kino-, aided to brino- Raleigh to 
the block, while the widow had the satisfaction of living lone enough to be 
assured that Charles would meet the same fate. The remains of the castle 



THE COAST OF DORSET. 415 



are at the cast end of Sherborne, covering about lour acres on a rocky emi- 
nence surrounded by a ditch. The gate-tower and portions of the walls and 
buildings still exist. The house that Raleigh built is now called the " Castle." 
and has since had extensive wings added to it, with a fine lake between it and the 
old castle-ruins, surrounded by attractive pleasure-grounds and a park. This 
famous estate fell into possession of the Earl of Digby, and is now a home of 
G. D. Wingfield Digby, Esq., being a popular resort in the hunting-season. 

THE COAST OF DORSET. 

The river Avon upon which Salisbury stands — for there are several of these 
Avon Rivers in England — flows southward between Dorsetshire and Hamp- 
shire, and falls into the Channel. Westward from its mouth extends a line ot 
sandy cliffs, broken by occasional ravines or chines, past Bournemouth to Poole 
Harbor, a broad estuary surrounded by low hills which is protected by a high 
ridge of chalk rocks on its south-western side running out into the sea. The 
sleepy town of Poole stands on the shore, having dim recollections of its ships 
and commerce of centuries ago. It was a nursery for privateersmen, and many 
are the exploits recorded of them. It was also, from the intricacy of its 
creeks and the roving character of its people, a notorious place for smuggling. 
Poole is an old-fashioned, brick-built town, with a picturesque gateway yet 
remaining as a specimen of its ancient defences. In the vale of the Stour, 
which here debouches, is the ancient minster of Wimborne, founded in the 
reign of King Ina by his sister, and containing the grave of the Saxon king 
yEthelred. It is not remarkable excepting for its age, and for having had for its 
dean Reginald Pole before he became a cardinal. The ancient and shrunken 
town of Wareham is also near by, having had quite a military history, but 
being almost destroyed by fire in 1762, from which it never recovered. It has 
now but three churches out of the eight it originally possessed, and of these 
only one is in regular use. But the great memory of this part of the coast is 
connected with Corfe Castle. 

The so-called Isle of Purbeck is near Poole Harbor, and the ruined castle of 
Corfe stands in a narrow gap in the hills, guarding the entrance to the south- 
ern part of this island, its name being derived from ceorfan, meaning " to 
cut," so that it refers to the cut or gap in the hills. Queen yElfrida in the 
tenth century had a hunting-lodge here. According to the legend, her step- 
son, King Edward, was hunting in the neighborhood and stopped at the door 
to ask for a drink. It was brought, and as he raised the cup to his lips he 
was stabbed in the back — it is said by the queen's own hand. He put spurs 
to his horse, galloped off, fell, and was dragged along the road, the battered 



4i 6 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



corpse being buried at Wareham. The queen had committed this murder for 
the benefit of her youngest son, and hearing him bewail his brother's death, 
she Hew into a passion, and, no cudgel being at hand, belabored him so stoutly 
ith a larce wax candle that he could never afterwards bear the sight of one. 



wi 




king's remains were then translated to 
Shaftesbury, miracles were wrought, and the 
queen, finding affairs becoming serious, founded 
two nunneries in expiation of the murder, to one 
of which she retired. This began the fame of the 
Isle of Purbeck, although the present Corfe Castle 
was not built till the twelfth century. It was attacked 
by, but baffled, Stephen, and King John used it as a 
royal residence, prison, and treasurediouse. Here he 
starved to death twenty-two French knights who had been partisans of his 
nephew Arthur; and he also hanged a hermit named Peter who had made 
rash prophecies of his downfall, this being intended as a wholesome warning 



THE COAST OF DORSET. 417 



to other unwelcome prophets. Its subsequent history was uneventful until the 
Civil War, when it was greatly enlarged and strengthened, occupying the upper 
part of the hill overlooking the village. Now it is ruined in every part: the 
entrance-gateway leans over and is insecure, the walls are rent, and the towers 
shattered, while the keep is but a broken shell, with one side entirely gone. 
This destruction was done in the Civil War, when Corfe was held for King 
Charles. In 1643, when the owner, Sir John Bankes, was absent, the castle 
was attacked, and his lady hastily collected the tenantry and some provisions 
and made the best defence she could. The besiegers melted down the roof 
of the village church for bullets, and approached the castle-walls under cover 
of two pent-houses called, respectively, " the Boar " and " the Sow." So gall- 
ing a fire, however, was kept up by the defenders that they were driven off, 
and their commander with difficulty rallied them for another attack, being well 
fortified with " Dutch courage." This time the brave little garrison, even the 
women and children taking part, hurled down upon them hot embers, paving- 
stones, and whatever else came handiest, and atrain drove them off when the 
effect of the liquor was spent ; then, the king's forces coming to the rescue, 
they decamped. But the fortunes of Charles waned : he was defeated at 
Naseby, Sir John Bankes died, and Corfe was the only stronghold left him 
between London and Exeter. Again it was attacked, and, through treachery, 
captured. It was afterwards dismantled and blown up by gunpowder, while 
its heroic defender, Lady Bankes, was deprived of her dowry as penalty for 
her " malignity." She received it again, however, and had the satisiaction of 
living until after the Restoration. 

Beyond the range of chalk-cliffs that here cross Dorsetshire the coast runs 
several miles southward from Poole Harbor, the promontory of the Foreland 
protruding into the sea and dividing the shore into two bays. The northern 
one is Studland Bay, alongside which is the singular rock of the Agglestone. 
The devil, we are told, was sitting one day upon one of the Needles off the 
neighboring coast of the Isle of Wight, looking about him to see what the 
world was doing, when he espied the towers of Corfe Castle just rising towards 
completion ; he seized a huge rock and hurled it at the castle, but it fell short, 
and remains to this day upon the moor. Nestling under the slopes of this 
moor, in a ravine leading down to the shore, is Studland village, with its little 
Norman church embosomed in foliage and surrounded by ancient gravestones 
and memorial crosses. South of the Foreland, and protected by the chalk 
range from the northern blasts, is Swanage Bay, bordered by its little town, 
which in past times has been variously called Swanwich, Sandwich, and Swanage. 
It is a quiet watering-place at the east end of Purbeck Isle, landlocked from every 



4i8 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



rough wind, a pleasant spot for summer sea-bathing, with huge elms growing 
on its beach and garden-flowers basking in the sunshine. The Purbeck mar- 
ble, which was so extensively used for church-building a few centuries ago, and 
which may be seen in Westminster Abbey, Canterbury, Salisbury, Ely, and 
other cathedrals, was quarrk 
though other quarries of it e: 
in Britain. It is an 
gate of fresh- water si 
which polishes ham 
somely, but is liable 
to crumble, and has 
in later years been 
generally super- 
seded by other 
building - stone. 
The coast south- 
ward is lined with 
quarries, and the 
lofty promontory ot 
St. Aldhelm's Head 
projects into the sec 
a conspicuous head- 
land seen from alar 
was named lor the first 
Bishop of Sherborne, and its 
summit rises nearly five hundred 
feet, being crowned by an ancient chape 
where in former days a priest trimmec 
the beacon-light and prayed lor the mar 
inns' safety. This ciifl exhibits sectior 
of Portland stone, and the view is unu- 
sually fine, the entire coast displaying vast 
walls of cream-colored limestone. These 
rocks extend westward past Encpmbe, where Chancellor Eldon closed his life, 
and the Vale of Kimmeridge, where they dig a dark blue clay, and Worbar- 
row Bay, with its amphitheatre of crags composed of Portland stone and 
breached here and there to form the gateways into interior coves. Here 
are the Barndoor Cove, entered through a natural archway; the Man-of-War 
Cove, its guardian rock representing a vessel; and Lulworth Cove, with its 




I. STUDLAND CHURCH. 2. RUINS OF OLD 
( ROSS IN THE CHURCHYARD. 



WEYMOUTH AND PORTLAND. 



419 




castle-ruins, most of which have 

been worked into the modern st. aldhelm's head. 

structure near by when; the exiled French king, Charles X., once lived. 



WEYMOUTH AND PORTLAND. 

The coast next sweeps around to the southward, forming the broad expanse 
of Weymouth Bay, with the precipitous headland of the White Nore on the 
one hand, and the crags of Portland Isle spreading on the other far out to sea, 
with the breakwater extending to the northward enclosing the bay and making 
a harbor under the lee of which vast fleets can anchor in safety. Weymouth is 
a popular watering-place and the point of departure for steamers for the Chan- 
nel Islands, and it was George III.'s favorite resort. He had a house there, 
and on the cliffs behind the town an ingenious soldier, by cutting away the 
turf and exposing the white chalk beneath, has made a gigantic figure of the 
kin^ on horseback, of clever execution and said to be a good likeness. Wey- 
mouth has a steamboat-pier and an attractive esplanade, and on the cliffs west 
of the town and overlooking the sea are the ruins of Sandsfoot Castle, erected 
for coast-defence by Henry YIII. They are of little interest, however, and 
south of them is the estuary of the Fleet, which divides Portland Isle from the 
mainland, but these are linked together by the Chesil Bank, a huge mound of 
pebbles forming a natural breakwater. At the lower end it is an embankment 



420 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



forty feet high, composed of large pebbles, some reaching a foot in diameter. 
As it stretches northward it decreases gradually in height and in the size of 
its pebbles, till it becomes a low shingly beach. To this great natural embank- 
ment the value of Portland Harbor is chiefly due, and many are the theories to 
account for its formation. Near the estuary of the Fleet is Abbotsbury, where 
are the ruins of an ancient church and the Earl of Ilchester's famous swannery, 
where he has twelve hundred swans. 





PORTLAND ISLE. 



The Isle of Portland, thus strangely linked to the mainland, is an elevated 
limestone plateau guarded on all sides by steep cliffs and about nine miles 
in circumference. Not far from the end of the Chesil Bank is Portland Castle, 
another coast-defence erected by Henry VIII. Near by, on the western slope, 
is the village of Chesilton. The highest part of the isle is Verne Hill, four 
hundred and ninety-five feet high, where there is a strong fort with casemated 
barracks that can accommodate three thousand men. Other works also defend 
the island, which is regarded of great strategic importance, and in the neigh- 
borhood are the famous quarries whence the Portland stone has been excavated 
lor two centuries. The most esteemed is the hard, pale, cream-colored oolite, 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 



421 



which was introduced to the notice of London by Inigo Jones, and has been 
popular ever since. With it have been built St. Paul's Cathedral, Somerset 
House, the towers of Westminster Abbey, and Whitehall, with other London 
buildings. Here also was quarried the stone for the great breakwater, of 
which the late Prince Consort deposited the first stone in 1849, and the Prince 
<>l Wales the last one in 1872, making the largest artificial harbor in the world. 
The first portion of this breakwater runs east from the shore eighteen hun- 
dred feet. There is an opening four hundred feet wide, and the outer break- 
water thence extends north-east six thousand feet, terminated by a strong circular 
fort guarding the harbor entrance. It cost over $5,000,000, and about one 
thousand convicts were employed in its construction, which took nearly six million 
tons of stone. The materials, quarried and laden on cars by the convicts, were 
sent down an inclined plane and out to the appointed place, where they were 
emptied into the sea. The prison of the convicts is on the east side of the 
island adjoining the quarries, and is almost a town of itself, having twenty-five 
hundred inmates. The prison-garb is blue and white stripes in summer, and 
a brownish-gray jacket and oilskin cap in winter. The convicts have built 
their own chapels and schools, and on the Cove of Church Hope near by are 
the ruins of Bow and Arrow Castle, constructed by William Rufus on a cliff over- 
hanging the sea, and also a modern building known as Pennsylvania Castle, 
built by William Penn's grandson in a sheltered nook. The views here are 
of great beauty, while at the southern end of the promontory is the castellated 
mass of rocks projecting far into the sea, and supporting two lighthouses, 
known as the Portland Bill. Below is the dangerous surf called the Race of 
Portland, where the tide flows with unusual swiftness, and in the bordering 
cliffs are many romantic caves where the restless waves make a constant 
plashing. 

THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 

From the harbor of Portland we will make a steamer-excursion almost across 
the English Channel, yoiny about one hundred and fifteen miles to the Channel 
Islands, off the north-western coast of France and within a few miles of the 
shores of Normandy and Brittany. They are Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, and 
Sark, standing in a picturesque situation, with a mild climate and fertile soil, and 
devoted mainly to dairying and to fishing. These islands were known to the 
Romans, and their strategic position is so valuable that England, while getting 
but $100,000 revenue from them, has expended two or three millions annually 
in maintaining their fortifications. It was upon the dangerous cluster of rocks 
west of Alderney, and known as the Caskets, that Henry I.'s only son, Prince 



4- 1 - 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



William, perished in the twelfth century, and here the man-of-war Victory was 
lost with eleven hundred men in 1744. Jersey is the most remarkable of these 
islands for its castles and forts, and has seen many fierce attacks. Both Henry 
VII. and Charles II. when in exile found refuge in Jersey. In approaching 
this island the fantastic outline of the Corbiere Promontory on the western 
side is striking. When first seen through the morning haze it resembles a 
huge elephant supporting an embattled tower, but the apparition vanishes on 




CORBIERE LIGHTHOUSE, JERSEY. 

closer approach. A lighthouse crowns the rock, and the bay of St. Aubin 
spreads a grand crescent of smiling shores, in the centre of which is Elizabeth 
Castle, standing on a lofty insulated rock whose jagged pinnacles are reared 
in grotesque array around the battlements. Within the bay is a sale harbor, 
with the villages of St. Helier and St. Aubin on the shores. Here is the her- 
mitage once occupied by Jersey's patron saint Elericus, and an abbey dedicated 
to him anciently occupied the site of the castle. The impregnable works of 
the great Regent Fort are upon a precipitous hill commanding the harbor ami 
castle. Upon the eastern side of the island is another hime tortress, called the 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 



4?3 



castle ol Mont Orgueil, upon a lofty conical rock forming the northern head- 
land of Grouville Bay. The apex of the mountain shoots up in the centre of 
the fortifications as high as the flagstaff which is planted upon them. Here 
lived Charles 11. when in exile, and this is the most interesting part of Jersey, 
historically. A part of the fortifications is said to date from Cojsar's incur- 
sion into Gaul, and the Romans in honor of their leader called the island 
Ca:sarea, describing it at that time as a stronghold of the Druids, of whose wor- 
ship many monuments remain. It was first attached to the British Crown at 
the Norman Conquest, and, though the French in the many wars since then 
have sent frequent expeditions against the island, they have never been able 
to hold it. The Chan- 
nel Islands altogether 
cover about seventy- 
five square miles. 
Alderney, which is 
within seven miles of 
the French coast, now 
has an extensive har- 
bor of refuge. Guern- 
sey contains the re- 
mains of two Norman 
castles — one almost 
entirely gone, and 
the other called Ivy 
Castle, from its ruins 
being mantled with 
shnihberv Its oreit view from the devil's hole, near coriuere. jersey. 

defensive work, Fort George, built in the last century, stands in a commanding 
position and is of enormous strength. Upon a rocky islet off St. Peter's Port 
is the chief defensive fort of that harbor, located about a mile to seaward — 
Castle Cornet, a work of venerable antiquity, parts of which were built by the 
Romans. In 1672, Viscount Christopher Hatton was governor of Guernsey, 
and was blown up with his family in Castle Cornet, the powder-magazine being 
struck by lightning at midnight. He was in bed, was blown out of the window, 
and lay for some time on the ramparts unhurt. Most of the family and attend- 
ants perished, but his infant daughter Anne was found next day alive, and sleep- 
ing in her cradle under a beam in the ruins, uninjured by the explosion. She 
lived to marry the Farl of Winchelsea and have thirty children, of whom thir- 
teen survived her. 




4_'4 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



THE SOUTHERN COAST OF DEVON. 

Westward of Portland Isle, on the southern coast near Abbotsbury, are the 
ruins of a monastery built by Canute, and St. Catharine's Chapel, perched on 
a steep hill overlooking the sea. while in the neighborhood is the Earl of 
Ilchester's castle, surrounded by attractive gardens. Beyond this the little river 
Lym tlows into the sea from among grand yet broken crags mantled with 
woods, and in a deep valley at the foot of the hills is the romantic town of 
Lyme Regis, with a pleasant beach and good bathing, the force of the waves 
being broken by a pier called the Cobb, frequently washed away and as olten 
restored, sometimes at cn-eat cost. This is a semicircular breakwater eleven 
hundred and seventy-nine feet long, protecting the harbor. There are grand 
cliffs around this little harbor, the Golden Cap and the Rhodehorn rearing their 
heads on high, the summit of the latter being cut by a passage called the 
Devil's Bellows. It was near Lyme Regis that on Christmas, 1839, the Dow- 
lands landslip took place, an area of forty acres sliding down the cliff to a 
lower level, roughly removing two cottages and an orchard in the descent. 
Five miles farther west the pretty river Axe. which tlows down from the 
Mendips, enters the sea. and on an eminence overlooking the stream is the 
town of Axminster, formerly a Saxon stronghold, and afterwards famous for 
the carpet manufacture, which some time ago was removed to Wilton. Its 
minster was founded in the days of /Lthelstan, but the remains are Norman 
work. Still farther west the little river Sid flows down past Sidbury and Sid 
lord, and enters the sea through a valley in which nestles the charming water- 
ing-place of Sidmouth, celebrated for its pebbles found among the green sand. 
Salcombe Hill and High Peak, towering five hundred feet, guard the valley- 
entrance on either hand, and in the church of St. Nicholas is a memorial 
window erected by Queen Victoria in memory of her father, the Duke of 
Kent, who died here in 1S20. The esplanade in front of the town is pro- 
tected by a sea-wall seventeen hundred feet long. Near here, at Hayes 
Barton, now an Elizabethan farm-house, Sir Walter Raleigh was born, the 
room in which he first saw the light being still shown. Beyond this, to the 
westward, the river Exe falls into the sea through a broad estuary at Exmouth, 
also a favorite watering-place, over which the lofty Haldon Hills keep guard 
at a height of eight hundred feet, the Beacon Walks being cut on their sloping 
face and tastefully planted with trees, while a broad esplanade protected by a 
sea-wall tronts the town. The shores all along are dotted with villas, and this 
coast is a popular resort, the village, gradually expanding into towns as their 
pi ipulations increase. 



EXETER, 



425 



EXETER. 

About eleven miles up the river Exe, before it has broadened out into the 
estuary, but where it flows through a well-marked valley and washes the bases 
of the cliffs, stands Exeter, a city set upon a hill. Here was an ancient " dun," 
or British hill-fort, succeeded by a Roman, and then by a Norman, castle, with 
the town descending- upon the slope towards the river and spreading into the 
suburb of St. Thomas on the other side. The growing city now covers several 
neighboring hills and tributary valleys, one of the flourishing new suburbs 
being named Pennsylvania. Upon 
the ridge, where was located the 
old hill-fort, there still remain 
in a grove of trees some , 
scanty ruins of the Nor 
man castle, while w 
up the slope of th 
hill rise the bold 
and massive towers 
of Exeter Cathe- 
dral. Unique 
among English 
municipalities, 
this is essentially 
a hill-city, the an- 
cient British name 
of Caerwise hav- 
ing been Latinized EXETEK CATHEDRAL, WEST FRONT. 

by the Romans into Isca, and then changed to Exanceaster, which was after- 
wards shortened into the modern Exeter. Nobody knows when it was founded: 
the Romans almost at the beginning of the Christian era found a flourishing- 
British city alongside the Exe, and it is claimed to have been "a walled city 
before the incarnation of Christ." Isca makes its appearance in the Roman 
records without giving the date of its capture, while it is also uncertain when 
the Saxons superseded the Romans and developed its name into Exanceaster. 
They enclosed its hill of Rougemont, however, with a wall of masonry, and 
encircled the city with ramparts built of square stones and strengthened by 
towers. Here the Saxon king /Ethelstan held a meeting of the Witan of the 
whole realm and proclaimed his laws, and in the first year of the eleventh cen- 
tury the Danes sailed up to the town and attacked it, being, however, beaten 




ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




off after a desperate - struggle. 
Two years later they made an- 
other attack, captured and de- 
spoiled it; but it rose from its 
ruins, and the townsmen after- 
wards defied the Norman as they 
had the Dane. William attacked 
and breached the walls, the city 
surrendered, and then he built 
Rougemont Castle, whose ven- 
erable ruins remain, to curb the 
stout-hearted city. It was re- 
peatedly besieged — in the days 
of Stephen, Henry VII., and 
Henry VIII., the last siege dur- 
ing the quarrels preceding the 
Reformation lasting thirty-four 
days, the defenders being re- 
duced to eating horse-flesh. In 
the Civil War the Royalists cap- 



RUINS nl ROUGEMONT CASTLE. 

tured it from the Parliamentarians, who 
held it, and it remained in the king's 
possession until alter the defeat at 
Naseby, when Cromwell recaptured it. 
Charles II. was proclaimed at Exeter 
with special rejoicings. When William, 
Prince of Orange, first landed in Eng- 
hind, he came to the valley of theTeign, 
near Newton Abbot, where the block 
of granite is still preserved from which 
his proclamation was read to the peo- 
ple. Three days later he entered Ex- 
eter, escorted by a great crowd of the 
townspeople. He went in military 
state to the cathedral and mounted the 
bishop's throne, with its lofty spire-like 
canopy, rich with the carving of the 
fifteenth century, while the choir san^ 




OLD HOLIES IN THE CATHEDRAE CLOSE. 



EXETER. 



4^7 



the Te Deum, after which Bishop Burnet read his proclamation. He remained 
several days in Exeter, while events ripened elsewhere for his reception. Here 
many Englishmen of rank and influence joined him, and his quarters began to 
display the appearance of a court. The daily show of rich liveries and ot 
coaches drawn by six horses among the old houses in the cathedral close, with 
their protruding bow-windows and balconies, gave the usually quiet place a 

, palatial appearance, the king's audience- 
chamber being in the deanery. He re- 
mained here two weeks, ami then left for 
London, the entire kingdom having risen 
in his favor and James having deserted 




EXETER CATHEDRAL, FROM THE NORTH WEST. 



the capital for Salisbury. This ended Exeter's stirring history. It afterwards 
grew in fame as a manufactory of woollens, but this has declined, and the chief 
industries now consist in the making of gloves and agricultural implements. 

Exeter Cathedral is the most conspicuous feature in the view upon ap- 
proaching the city, rising well above the surrounding houses, its two massive 
gray towers giving it something of the appearance of a fortress. This leature 
makes it unique among English cathedrals, especially as the towers form its 
transepts. The close is contracted, and around it are business edifices instead 
of ecclesiastical buildings. The exterior is plain and simple in outline, except- 
ing the western front, which is a very rich example of fourteenth-century Gothic. 
A church is said to have been standing on its site and dedicated to the Bene- 
dictines as early as the seventh century, and it lasted until after the Norman 
Conquest. The Normans built a new church in the twelfth century, which con- 



428 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



tained the present towers, but the remainder of the structure was afterwards 
transformed as we now see it. The rich western facade consists of three 
stages, receding one behind the other ; the lower is the porch, subdivided into 
three enriched arcades containing figures and pierced by three doorways. The 
second stage is formed above this by the ends of the nave and side-aisles, 

being terminated with a battlement 
flanked by small pinnacles about 
halfway up the nave gable. A fine 
window pierces this stage, and above 
it the remainder of the gable forms 
the third stage, also pierced by a 
window which opens over the battle- 
ment. The figures in the lower stage 
represent the kings of England, apos- 
tles, and saints. The interior of the 
nave discloses stone vaulting and 
Decorated architecture, with large 
clerestory windows, but a small tn- 
forium. The bosses of the roof, which 
presents an unbroken line, are seventy 
feet above the floor. One of the bays 
on the north side of the triforium is 
a beautiful minstrels' gallery, com- 
municating with a chamber above 
the porch The inner walls of the 
towers have been cut away, com- 
pletely adapting them for transepts, 
the towers being supported on great 
pointed arches. In the large east 
window the stained glass commem- 
orates St. Sidwell, a lady murdered 
in the eighth century at a well near 
Exeter by a blow from a scythe at 
the instigation of her stepmother, who coveted her property. The cathedral 
is rich in monumental relics, and it has recently been thoroughly restored. 
Little remains of the ancient convent-buildings beyond the chapter-house, 
which adjoins the south transept. 

The older parts of Exeter present a quaint and picturesque appearance, 
especially along the High Street, where is located the old Guild Hall, a pon- 




1111. THRONE, EXETER CATHEDRAL. 



TEIGNMOUTH AND TOR B AY. 



429 



derous stone build- 
ing, with a curious 
front projecting over 
the footway and sup- 
ported by columns : 
it was built in the 
sixteenth century. 
Sir Thomas Bodley, 
who founded the Bod- 
leian Library of Ox- 
ford, was born in Ex- 
eter, and also Richard 
Hooker the theolo- 
gian. Amoiijj its 
famous bishops was 
Trelawney (then the 




THE MINSTRELS GALLERY, EXETER CATHEDRAL, 




THE GUILD HALL. 



Bishop of Bristol), who was 
one of the seven bishops 
committed by King James 
to the Tower, and whose 
memory still lives in the 
West-Country refrain, the 
singing of which had so 
much to do with raising the 
English revolt in favor of 
the Prince of Orange : 

" And shall Trelawney die ? 
And shall Trelawney die? 
There's twenty thousand Cornish lads 
Will know the reason why." 

TEIGNMOUTH AND TOR ISA V. 
Prom the estuary of the 
Exe the Devonshire coast 
trends almost southward 
towards the mouth of the 
Dart, being everywhere 
bordered by picturesque 
cliffs. Nestling in a gap 
anion:/ the cra^s, under the 



43° 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



protecting shelter of the headlands, is the little watering-place of Dawlish, 
fronted by villas and flower-gardens, and having to the southward strange 
pinnacles of red rock rising from the edge of the sea, two of them forming 
a fanciful resemblance to the human figure, being named the Parson and the 
Clerk. A storm recently knocked off a considerable part of the Parson's 
head. Upon their sides, piercing through tunnel after tunnel, runs the railway 
almost over the water's edge. Soon the cliffs are breached with a wider open- 
ing, and here flows out the river Teign, where is the larger watering-place ot 




BABBICOMBE BAY. 



Teignmouth, which has frequently suffered from Danish and French invasions, 
but is now lust known by having the longest wooden bridge in England span- 
ning the river-estuary and extending seventeen hundred feet, with a swing- 
draw to permit vessels to pass. The valley is broad, with picturesque villas 
on either bank. Below Teignmouth the shores project into the sea at the bold 
promontory of Hope's Nose, which has Torbay on one side and Babbicombe 
Bay on the other. Here, around the shores of the bay on the southern side 
ot the projecting cape, is the renowned watering-place of Torquay, which has 
grown enormously since it has become such a fashionable resort in recent 
years. Its beautiful scenery and sheltered position have made it a favorite 
home for invalids. Its name is derived from the neighboring hill of Mohun's 
Tor, where there are ruins of an abbey. To the north of the headland is the 



TEIGNMOUTH AND TORBAY. 



431 



fine sweep of Babbicombe Bay, with a border of smooth sand beach backed 
by steep cliffs, above which is the plateau where most of its villas are built. 
To the south of the headland Torquay spreads around a fine park, with high- 
lands protecting it on almost all sides, while farther to the southward the lime- 
stone cliffs are bold 




. ", 7 



■«*- -- 



and lofty, one of 
them presenting the 
singular feature of 
a natural arch called 
London Bridge, 
where the sea has 
pierced the extrem- 
ity of a headland. 
Upon the eastern 
face of the pro- 
montory of Hope's 
Nose, and just be- 
low Babbicombe 
Bay, another pretty 
cove has been hol- 
lowed out by the ac- 
tion of the waves, its 
sides being densely 
clothed with foliage, 
while a pebbly beach fringes 
the shore. This is Anstis 
Cove, its northern border 
guarded by limestone cliffs 
that have been broken at 
outer verge into pointed 
Compton Castle, about two 
from Torbay, is a specimen, th 
in ruins, of the ancient fortified 
mansion of the reign of Edward 
III. It is of massive construction, built of the native limestone, and part of it 
is now used as a farm-house. Following around the deeply-recessed curve of 
Torbay, its southern boundary is found to be the bold promontory of Berry 
Head, and here on the northern side is the old fishing-port of Brixham, having 
Church Brixham built up on the cliffs and Brixham Quay down on the beach. 




ANSTIS COVE. 



432 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



It was here that the Prince of Orange landed in 1688, and a monument in the 
market-place commemorates the event, the identical block of stone on which 
he first stepped being preserved. 



THE DART. 

Southward of this promontory is the estuary of the Dart, a river which, like 
nearly all the streams of Devonshire, rises in that great "mother of rivers," 
I )artmoor, whence come the Tawe and the 'Feign, of which we have already 
spoken, and also the Torridge, the Yealm, the Ernie, the Plym, and the Avon 
(still another of them). This celebrated moor covers an area of about one 
hundred and thirty thousand acres, stretching thirty-three miles in length and 
twenty-two miles in breadth, and its elevation averages seventeen hundred 
feet, though some of its tors, the enormous rocks of granite crowning its 
hills, rise considerably higher, the loftiest of these, the Yes Tor, near Oke- 
hampton, being two thousand ami fifty feet high. The moor is composed of 




TOTNES, FROM THE RIVER. 



vast stretches of bog and stunted heather, with plenty of places where peat is 
cut, and having its streams tilled with trout. Legend tells us that all manner 
of hill- and water-spirits frequent this desolate yet attractive region, and that in 
Cranmore Pool and its surrounding bogs, whence the Dart takes its rise, there 
dwelt the " pixies " and the " kelpies." The head-fountains of both the Dart and 
the Plym are surrounded with romance, as the cities at their mouths are famous 
in English history, ami Spenser, in the Faerie Queene, announces that both Dart 
and Plym were present at the great feast of the rivers which celebrated the 
wedding of the Thames and Medway. The courses of the Dartmoor rivers 
are short, but with rapid changes. In the moorland they run through moss 
and over granite; then among woods and cultivated fields, till, with constantly 
broadening stream, the river joins the estuary or tidal inlet, and thus finds its 



THE DART. 



433 



vent in the ocean. Strangely enough, with these short streams there arc high 
points on the Dartmoor tors from which both source and mouth of a river 
are visible at the same time. The Hart, with steadily-increasing How, thus 
runs out ol the moorland, and not far from its edge passes the antique town 
of Totnes, where the remains of an ivy-mantled wall upon the hill is all that is 
left of Judhael's famous castle, which dates from the Norman Conquest. The 
surrounding country is remarkably picturesque, and is noted for its agricul- 
tural wealth. About two miles to the eastward is the romantic ruin of Berry 
Pomeroy Castle, founded upon a rock which rises almost perpendicularly from 
a narrow valley, 
through which a 
winding brook 
bubbles. It is over- 
hung with foliaee 
ami shrubbery and 
mantled with moss 
and ivy, so that it 
is most attractive. 
The 'jreat "ate, the 
southern walls, 
part of a quadran- 
gle, and a few tur- 
rets are all that 
remain of the cas- 
tle, which suffered 
severely in the bekiu pomeroy castle. 

Civil War. Tradition states that the adjacent village was destroyed by light- 
ning. This castle also dates from the Norman Conquest, and passed from its 
original possessors, the Pomeroys, to Protector Somerset, tin- Duke of Som- 
erset being the present owner. 

The Dart, which is a rock)' stream above Totnes and a favorite resort of the 
fisherman and sketcher, becomes navigable below the town, and has a soft, 
peculiar beauty ol its own that has made it often compared to the Rhine; but 
there is little comparison between them: the Dart has no precipitous cliffs or 
vine-clad hills, and no castle excepting at its mouth. From Totnes to Dart- 
mouth is about twelve miles, through exquisitely beautiful scenery, especially 
where the river passes the woods of Sharpham, the currrent narrowing to 
about one hundred and titty feet, and flowing through an amphitheatre of over- 
arching trees rising in masses of foliage to the height of several hundred feet. 




434 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



The stream makes various sharp bends — a paradise for the artist — and finally 
it broadens out into an estuary like an inland lake, with a view over the inter- 
vening neck of land to Torbav, and beyond the coast-line at Exmouth and 




A HEND OF THE DART. 

towards Portland. Thus we come to Dartmouth, the old houses built tier 
above tier on a steep hill running' up from the harbor, while at the extreme 
point of the promontory, guarding the entrance 
to the estuary, is the little church of St. 
Petrox, with its armorial gallery and ruins 
of an ancient manor house, and the 



castle, consisting of a square and 
a round tower, coming down from 
Henry VII. 's reign, when it was 
built for coast-defence. On the 
opposite point of the harbor-en- 
trance are the foundations of an- 
other castle, evidently built about 
the same time. Dartmouth in ear- 
ly times was a port ol great im- 
portance, and Edward 111. first gave 
it a charter under the name of Clif- Dartmouth castle. 

ton-Dartmouth Hardness. Its merchants were then numerous and wealthy, 
and Cceur de Leon's crusaders assembled their fleet in the harbor in iiqo. 
The French destroyed both it and Plymouth in 1377, and in 1405 the two 
towns, combining, ravaged the French coasts and burned torty ships. The 




THE PLYM. 



435 



French retaliated the next year, but Dartmouth was too much for them, killing 
1 )u Chastel, the commander, and defeating his expedition. It suffered severely 
in the Civil War, and there are still traces of the land-fastenings of the iron 
chain stretched across the harbor to keep out the French. 



THE PLYM. 
Westward of the valley of the Dart is the valley of the Plym, also flowing 
out of Dartmoor. Two streams known as the Cad and the Mew join to lorm 
this river, and though they are of about equal importance, the source of the 

Cad is generally regarded as the true Plym head, while 
a crossing upon it is known as the Plym Steps. Both 
are rock)', dashing mountain-streams, and such 
are also the characteristics of the Plym after 
the junction until it enters its estuary. The 
Plym Head is within the royal forest of Dart- 
moor, about twelve hundred feet above 
the sea, and in the wild and lonely moor- 
land. The stream Hows by the flat sum- 
mit of Sheeps Tor, one of the 
chief peaks on the southern bor- 
der of the moor. Here in a hol- 
low formed by overhanging rocks 
one of the Royalist Flfords, whose 
house was under the tor, sought 
refuge, and amused his solitude 
by painting the walls of the cavern, 
which is known as the " Pixies' 
House," and is regarded by the 
neighbors as a dangerous place 
tor children, to whom these little 
fairies sometimes take a fancy- 
It is not safe, the)' say, to go near 
it without dropping a pin as an offering between the 
chinks of the rock — not a very costly way of buying 
immunity. In Sheeps Tor churchyard in the valley 
below lies Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, who 
died near there in 1868. As the streams course down the hillside they dis- 
close frequent traces of the rude stone relics left there by an ancient people, 
the chief being the settlement at Trowlesvvorthy, where there is a circular hut 




Ic^ffo"* __ 



THE DEWERSTONE. 



436 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



enclosure about four hundred feet in diameter, with stone avenues leading to it 
and the entrances defended by portions of walls. The stones are nowhere large, 
however, rarely exceeding five feet high. Then we come to Shaugh, where 
the rivers struggle through rock)- ravines and finally join their waters. The 
little Shaugh church crowns the granite rocks on one side, while on the other 
is the towering crag of the Dewerstone. This ivy-clad rock, which litts its 
furrowed and wrinkled battlements far above the Plym, was the " Rock of Tiw," 
that powerful god of the Saxons from whom comes the name ol Tuesday. 
Once, we are told, in the deep snow traces ol a human foot and a cloven hoof 
were found ascending to the highest point of the rock, which His Satanic 

Majesty seems to have claimed for 
his own domain. From this lofty 
outpost of the moor, if he stayed 
there, our all-time enemy certainly 
had a wide lookout. On the one 
hand is a grand solitude, and on 
the other a hilly country stretches 
to the seaboard, with the river-valley 
winding through woods and fields, 
and Plymouth Sound and its break- 
water in the distance. Here, below 
the junction of the two streams, 
are the scant remains of the old 
house of Grenofen, whose inmates 
lived in e^eat state, and were the 
Slannings who so ardently sup- 
ported King Charles. A mossy 
barn with massive gables is the prominent feature of the ruins. The river 
runs down through the very beautiful vale of Bickleigh, and then under Plym 
Bridge, where it becomes broader and more tranquil as it approaches the head 
of the estuary. This region belonged to the priory of Plympton, and its 
Augustinian owners raised at the end of the bridge a small chapel where the 
traveller might pause for prayer before venturing into the solitudes beyond. 
The remains of this structure, however, are now slight. At Plympton St. 
Mary was the priory, and at Plympton Earl the castle of the Earls of Devon, 
a brook flowing between them to the river. Both stand near the head of the 
estuary, and are in ruins. The priory was the wealthiest monastic house in 
Devon, but the castle was only important as the head-quarters of Plymouth's 
Royalist besiegers in tin; Civil War. The priory was the nurse of the noted 







IN RICKLEIGH VALE. 



THE PLYM. 



437 



port of Plymouth, and its earlier beginnings can be traced to the fostering 
care of the Augustinians, who developed the fishing-town that subsequently 
became the powerful seaport. Plympton, the old rhyme tells us, was "a 
borough-town " when Plymouth was little else than a "a furzy down." The 
priory was founded in the twelfth century, and was long patronized by the 
neighboring Earls of Devon. The Augustinians, legend says, were the first 
to cultivate the apple in Devonshire, and the ruins still disclose the moss- 
grown "apple-garth." Little remains of the mon- astery beyond the old 
refectory doorway and walls. The town of ^ 
Plympton Maurice is in the valley near bv, \% 
famous as the birthplace of Sir Joshua Rey- 
nolds in 1723, but the house has been swept 
away, though the grammar-school in which 
his father taught remains. Reynolds is 
said to have made good use of the recol- 
lections of the grand scenery around his 
birthplace in furnishing landscape back- 
grounds for his pictures. The town after- 
wards elected him mayor, though he rarely 
visited his birthplace, but in lieu sent the 
corporation his portrait painted by himself. 
Here begins the broad estuary known as 
the Laira, at the mouth of which stands Ply- 
mouth, the town covering' the land between 
the Laira and the Hamoaze, the estuary of 
the Tamar, with its adjoining suburbs of 
Stonehouse and Devonport. Here are now a 
population of two hundred thousand, while 
the station is of vast importance as a govern- 
ment dockyard and barracks, with a chain ot 
strong protecting fortifications for defence 
from attacks both by sea and land. Along 
the southern bank of the estuary extend the 
woods of Saltram, the seat of the Pari of Morley. Then we come to Cat- 
water Haven, crowded with merchant-ships, and the older harbor of Sutton 
Pool. Mount Batten on one side and Citadel Point on the other guard the 
entrance to the haven. It was here that the English fleet awaited the Armada 
in 1588; that Essex gathered his expedition to conquer Cadiz in 1596; and 
from here sailed the Mayflower with the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620. Plymouth 




sfBBIllfe-f' 



OLD 1 1( 11 iK WAV, AUGUST1NIAN PKIORV, 
PLYMPTON'. 



1 38 Vi \ND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 

harbor's maritime and naval history is, however, interwoven with thai oi 
I ngland. 

V\ \ MOU I'll. 

The porl of Plymouth comprises what arc called the "Three Towns" — Ply- 
mouth proper, covering about a square mile, Stonehouse, and Devonport, 
whore the greal naval dockyard is located. Plymouth Sound is an estuar) ol 
the English Channel, and receives the Plym at its north-eastern border and 
the Tamar at its north-western, the sound being about three miles square 
and protected l>v the greal breakwater a mile long, with a lighthouse, and 
defended by forts. The Plym broadens into the Catwater, used as a haven 
foi merchant-vessels and transports and capable ol furnishing anchorage to 
a thousand ships at one time. The Tamar broadens into the 1 lamoaze, which 
is the naval harbor, and is lour miles long, with sufficient anchorage ground 
for the entire British navy. Sutton Pool is a tidal harbor now used by mer 
chant vessels. The toasts of Plymouth Sound are rock) and abrupt, and 
strong fortresses frown at every entrance. It is the naval dockyard that gives 
Plymouth its chiel importance: this is at Devonport, which is strongly fortified 
lw breastworks, ditches, embankments, and heavj batteries. The great dock 
yard encloses an area of ninety-six acres and has thirty five hundred feet of 
water frontage. There are here five docks and also building-slips, where tin- 
great British warships are constructed. Another enclosure ol seventy-two 
acres at Point keyham is used for repairing ships, and a canal seventy feel 
wide runs through the yards to facilitate the movement of materials. Immense 
roofs cover the docks. East of Devonport, divided from it by a creek, and 
adjoining Plymouth, is Stonehouse. Here are the great victualling yard, ma- 
rine barracks, and naval hospital. The Royal William Victualling Yard occu 
pit's fourteen acres on a tongue of land at the mouth ol the Tamar. and cost 
$7,500,000 to build. Here the stores are kept and naval supplies furnished, 
its great features being the vast government bakehouse, the cooperage, and 
the storehouses. Its front is protected by a redoubt, and to the eastward are 
the tasteful grounds of the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe's winter villa. The 
marine barracks, which have the finest mess-room in England, will accommodate 
fifteen hundred men; the naval hospital, northward ^\ Stonehouse. will fur- 
nish beds for twelve hundred. 'There are three thousand men employed about 
these great docks and stores, and they form the most extensive naval estab 
lishment in the world. Near Mount Wise are the Raglan Barracks, where 
there is ,1 display of cannon taken from the Turks. 

In Plymouth Sound is a bold pyramidal rock, the Isle o( St. Nicholas, which 



TAVISTOCK. 439 



is a formidable fortress. Mount Edgcumbe is on the western shore, and on 
the eastern side is Plymouth's pretty park, known as the Hoe, where the old 
Eddj itone Lighthouse will be set up. Having come down the Plym, we will 
now ascend the Tamar, past the huge docks and stores, and about five miles 
above see the great Albert Bridge, which carries a railway, at a height oi one 
hundred feet, from the hills of Devon over to those ol Cornwall on the western 
shore. It is built on nineteen arches, two broad ones of lour hundred and 
fifty five feet span each bridging the river, the entire structure being two 
thousand two hundred and forty feet long. Out in the English Channel, lour- 
teen miles from Plymouth, is its famous beacon — the Eddystone Lighthouse. 
Here Winstanley perished in the earlier lighthouse that was swept away by 
the terrible storm of 1703, and hen' Smeaton built his great lighthouse in 1759, 
one hundred feet high, which has recently been superseded by the new light 
house. The Eddystone Rocks consist of twentj two gneiss reels extending 
about six hundred and fifty feet, in front ol the entrance to Plymouth Sound. 
Smeaton's lighthouse, modelled after the trunk of a sturdy oak in Windsor 
Park, became the model for all subsequent lighthouses. It is as firm to-day 
as when originally built, but the reef on which it rests has been undermined 
and shattered by the joint action of the waves and the leverage of the tall 
stone column, against which the seas strike with prodigious lone, causing it to 
vibrate like the trunk of a tree in a storm. The foundation-stone of the new 
lighthouse was laid on a reef one hundred and twenty-seven feet south ol the 
old one in 1S7S. It is built of granite and rises one hundred and thirty eight 
feet above the rock, its light being visible seventeen miles: it was first lighted 
May [8, 1882. 

TAVISTOCK. 

A short distance up the Tamar it receives its little tributary the Tavy, run- 
ning through a deep ravine, and on its banks are the ruins of Tavistock Abbey, 
founded in the tenth century and dedicated to St. Mary. Orgarius, the Earl 
of Devonshire, was admonished in a dream to build it, but his son Ordulph 
finished it. lb- was of great strength anil gigantic stature, could break down 
gates and stride across a stream ten feet wide. They still preserve, we are 
told, some of Ordulph's huge bones in Tavistock Church. The Danes plun- 
dered and burned the abbe)-, but it was rebuilt in greater splendor, and its 
abbot sat in the I louse of Peers. When it was disestablished, like Woburn 
it fell to Lord Russell, and it is now owned by the Duke of Bedford. The 
remains of the grand establishment, however, are but scant)', and its best 
memory is that of the printing-press set up by the monks, which was the 
second press established in England. The Duke of Bedford's attractive villa 



44© 



Em ;la xd, rn • ri reso l '/•: and r> esc r ir ri i ■/■:. 



of Endsleigh is near Tavistock, and a short distance south ot the town is Buck- 
land Abbey, built on the river-bank by the Countess of Devon in the thirteenth 
century. This was the home of Sir Francis Drake, and is still held by his 
descendants. Drake was born in a modest cottage on the banks of the Tavy 
about the year [539. North of Tavistock, on the little river Lyd, are the ruins 
of Lydford Castle, surrounded by a village of rude cottages. Here originated 
the "law of Lydford," a proverb expressive of hasty judgment : 

"First hang anil draw, 
Then hear the cause by Lydford law." 

One chronicler accounts for this proverb by the wretched state ot the castle 
jail, in which imprisonment was worse than death. At 1 .yd ord is a remark- 
able chasm where a rude arch is thrown across an abyss, at the bottom ot which, 
eighty feet below, the Lyd rattles along in its contracted bed. This is a 
favorite place for suicides, and the tale is still told ot a benighted horseman, 
caught in a heavy storm, who spurred his horse along the road at headlong 
speed to seek shelter in the village. Next day it was found that the storm 
had swept the bridge away, and the rider shuddered to think how his horse on 
that headlong ride through the tempest had leaped over the abyss without his 
knowing it. 

THE NORTHERN COAST OK DEVON. 
Exmoor is a broad strip of almost mountainous moorland extending through 
the northern borders ot Somerset and Devon and down to the coast of Bristol 




MINI IIIC.W). 

Channel. Its hills descend 
precipitously to the sea. so 



THE XORTHERN COAST OF DEVON. 



44i 



that only small brooks flow northward from them, excepting the Lyn, which 
manages to attain the dignity of a river by flowing for some distance among 
the hills parallel to the coast. It was but recently that good roads were con- 
structed across this lonely moor, and on its northern edge, where the craggy 
headland of Greenaleigh is thrust out into the sea, is the harbor of Minehead, 
with a little fishing-village skirting its shores. A short distance inland, and 
s«ated at the bases of the: steep Brendon Hills, which rise in sharp wooded 
slopes above its houses, is the little market-town of Dunster. On an outlying 




VILLAGE AND CASTLE OF DUNSTER. 



hill, projecting from the mass, the original lord ol Dunster built his castle, 
perching it upon a rocky crag that Nature herself designed for a fortress. 
The Saxons called it their " Hill-tower." Its picturesque mass of buildings is 
of various dates, but much more modern than their early day, most of the 
present structure having been built in Queen Elizabeth's reign. The castle 
was held for King Charles in the Civil War, and besieged by the Parliamentary 
troops, whose commander sent this bloodthirsty message to its governor: "If 
you will deliver up the castle, you shall have fair quarter; if not, expect no 
mercy: your mother shall be in front to receive the first fury of your cannon." 
The governor promptly and bravely replied, " If you do what you threaten, you 
do the most barbarous and villainous act that was ever done. My mother I 
honor, but the cause I fight for and the masters I serve are God and the 

56 



44 - 



EXGI.A.XP, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



king. — Mother, do you forgive me, and give me your blessing, and let the 
rebels answer for spilling- that blood of yours, which 1 would save with the 
loss of mine own if I had enough for both my master and yourself." The 
mother also without hesitation answered him : " Son, I forgive thee, and pray 
God to bless thee, for this brave resolution. If I live I shall love thee the 
better for it: God's will be done 1 " Whether the atrocious threat would have 
been put into execution was never decided, for a strong Royalist force soon 
appeared, routing the besiegers, capturing a thousand ot them, and releasing 
the hub'. But the castle was soon afterwards taken for the Parliament by 
Colonel Blake, subsequently the admiral. It was then demolished, and now 




ON PORI.OfK MOOR — THE KOAD HI OARE. 



the summit of the flat-topped hill, where formerly was the keep, is devoted to 
the peaceful amusement of a bowling-green, from which there are exquisite 
views of the Brendon Hills and far away over the Bristol Channel to the 
distant coast of Wales. It was at Dunster Castle that William Prynne was 
shut up a prisoner by Cromwell. Prynne had been pilloried, shorn of his cars, 
and imprisoned by King Charles I. for his denunciations of the court, and then 
indulging in the same criticism of the Protector, he was confined at Dunster. 
It is now the head-quarters for those who love the exciting pleasures of stag- 
hunting on Exmoor. 

Journeying westward over the hills from Minehead, which is just now en- 
deavoring, though with only partial success, to convert itself into a fashionable 
watering-place, Dunkery Beacon is seen raising its head inland— a brown, heathy 



THE NORTHERN COAST OF DEVON. 



443 



moorland elevated seventeen hundred ieet above the sea. [here is a grand 
panorama disclosed from its summit, though it is a toilsome ascent to get up 
there and overlook the fifteen counties it can display. Far below is the level 
shore of Porlock Bay, with the little village set in at the base of the cliffs. 
I [ere Southey was sheltered at its inn, and wrote a sonnet while he was "by 
the unwelcome summer rain detained ;" and here the village has slept ever 






THE DOONE VALLEY. 

since the Danes harried and Harold 
burned it. Then the road climbs labo- 
riously up the hill again to Porlock 
Moor, and as the top is reached, far away 
is seen a little grassy basin running like 
a streak off towards the north-west, and 
enclosed by steep hills, in which it is ultimately lost. This is the valley of the 
Lyn, and joining it is another little glen, with a hamlet of white cottages at 
the junction : this is the Oare valley, the centre of some of the most stirring 
traditions of Exmoor, embodied in Blackmore's novel of Lorua Doone. Two 
centuries ago a lawless clan established themselves in this lonely glen, from 
which issues the Bagworthy Water not far away from the little village of Oare. 
Here was Jan Ridd's farm, and near it the cataract of the Bagworthy Water- 
slide, while above this cataract, in the recesses of Doone Glen, was the robbers' 
home, whence they issued to plunder the neighboring country. The novel tells 
how Jan Ridd, who was of herculean strength, was standing with his bride 
Lorn. i at the altar of the little church in Oare when a bullet wounded her. 
Out rushed Jan from the presence of his wife, dead as he thought, to pursue 



444 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



the murderer. He was unarmed, and rode after him over the moorland, tear- 
in- from an oak a mighty bough as he passed under it. To this day the rent 




in 



BAGWORTHY WATER. 

an Ridd's tree" is shown. Then came the struggle, and an Exmoor bog 

swallowed up the murderer, who was the last of the robber chieftains; and 

afterwards the bride recovered 



and the happy pair were united. 
Exmoor is the only place remain- 
ing in the kingdom where the wild 
stag is still hunted with hounds, 
llli the season being in the early au- 
tumn, when all the inns are crowd- 
ed, and on the day of a "meet" 
all the country seems alive. 




LVXTON AND LYNMOUTH. 
From Oare the vallev of the 
Lyn can lie followed down to the 
sea, (lowing through its wooded 
gorge and disclosing many pretty 
views. It runs rapidly over the 
rocks, and, when at last seeking 
the sea, the little stream manages 
to escape out of the hills that have 
so long encompassed it, we again 
tmd coupled together an upper 
jan ridd's tree. and a lower town— Lynton, perch- 

ed hundreds of feet above on the crags, and Lynmouth, down by tin; water's 
ed < . both in grandly picturesque locations. Crowded between the bases of 



/ ) A TON AND 1 YNMOUTH. 



445 



the crags and the pebbly beach is 

the irregular line of old cottages be- 
side the bubbling stream, with creep 
ing vines climbing over their walls 
and thatched roofs, while beyond is 
thrust out the ancient pier that made 
the port of Lynmouth. Up on the 
cra^s, with houses nestling here in 
nooks and perched there upon cliffs, 
Lynton mounts by zigzag paths, until, 
on a rocky terrace above, it gets 
room to spread into a straggling 
street. The two streams called the 
Hast and West Lyn unite here before 




VIEW ON THE EAST LYN. 




seeking the sea, and join their currents at the vd^v oi 
leap over the boulders: 



446 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



Cool and clear, cool and clear, 

Bj shining shingle and foaming weir, 

I nder the crag where the ouzel sings, 

And the ivied wall where the church-bell rings." 




THE DEVIL'S CHEESE-RING. 

Southey rapturously described the East Lyn Vale as the "finest spot, except 
Cintra and Arrabida, that I ever saw." It is like a miniature glen in the Alps 
or the Pyrenees, and every turn in the road up to the Waters-meet, where the 
Brendon ; joins the Lyn, discloses new beauties. It is an exquisite com- 
bination of wood, rock, and stream that battles 
all description. Gentle flowers grow here to 
luxuriant perfection, protected from all chilling- 
blasts and with ample moisture to assist the 
sunshine in their cultivation. But barely a mile- 
east of Lynton on the coast there is told a dif- 
ferent story: there is .1 valley of rocks, where 
between two ridges <>! hills the vale is covered 
with stones and almost completely bid bare, a 
terrific mass of boulders, the very skeleton ot 
the earth. Overhanging the sea is the gigantic 
towlu on on heach, lynmouth. " Castle Rock," while facing it from the inland 




COMBE MARTIN AND ILFRACOMBE, 



44; 



side, at an elbow of the valley, is a queer pile of crags known as the " Devil's 
Cheese-Ring." From the castle is a view over the sea and oi the romantic 
towns, with" the little river (lowing alongside and the tower on Lynmouth 
beach, while far westward the moorland spreads away towards those other 
romantic spots, Ilfracombe and Clovelly. 

COMBE MARTIN AND ILFRACOMBE. 

Let us skirt along the precipitous Devonshire coast westward from the Lyn, 

where the cliffs rise high and abruptly from the water, with foliage on the hills 

above them and sheep browsing like little white specks beyond. Thus Exmoor 

is prolonged westward in a broad and lofty ridge of undulating hills, through 




II.KKACOMBE. 

which a stream occasionally carves its devious course in a deep and sheltered 
valley that comes out to the sea between bold, rocky headlands. Far out over 
the sea loom up the coasts of Wales in purple clouds. Soon in a breach in 
the wall of crags we find Combe Martin, its houses dotted among the gardens 
and orchards clustering thickly around the red stone church. Here were 
silver-mines long ago, and here lived Martin of Tours, to whom William the 



44« ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



Conqueror granted the manor which to this day bears his name. The neigh- 
boring hills grow the best hemp in Devon, and the crags guarding the harbor 
are known as the Great and Little Hangman, the former, which is the higher, 
standing behind the other. The local tradition says that once a fellow who had 
stolen a sheep was carrying the carcase home on his back, having tied the 
hind legs together around his neck. He paused for breath at the top ol the 
hill, and, resting against a projecting slab, poised the carcase on the top, when 
it suddenly slipped over and garroted him. He was afterwards found dead, 
and thus named the hills. Near here was born, in 1522, Bishop Jewel of Sal- 
isbury, of whom it is recorded by that faithful biographer Fuller that he "wrote 
learnedly, preached painfull)', lived piously, died peacefully." To the westward 
are Watersmouth, with its natural arch in the slaty rocks bordering the sea, 
and Hillsborough rising boldly to guard a tiny cove. Upon this precipitous 
headland is an ancient camp, and it overlooks Ilfracombe, the chief watering- 
place of the northern Devonshire coast. Here a smart new town has rapidly- 
developed, with paths cut upon the cliffs and encroachments made along the 
shore. High upon a pyramidal headland stands the ancient chapel where in 
the olden time the forefathers of the village prayed to St. Nicholas for deliv- 
erance from shipwreck. Now a lighthouse is relied on for this service. The 
promontory is connected with a still bolder and loftier headland, the Capstone 
Rock. The town is built on the slope of the hills overlooking these huge 
round-topped crags, but its streets do not run down to sand-beaches. There 
is little but rocks on the shore and reefs in the water, worn into ridges ot pic- 
turesque outline, over which the surf breaks grandly in time of storm. We 
are told that in a cave near by, Sir William Tracy, one of the murderers of 
St. Thomas a Becket at Canterbury, concealed himseli while waiting to escape 
from England. He and his accomplices were ordered to purge themselves by 
a pilgrimage to the Holv Land, but Tracv was not able to accomplish it. The 
winds ot heaven always drove him back whenever he tried to embark, for he 
had struck the first blow at Becket. He was buried in Morthoe Church beyond 
Ilfracombe. 

MORTE POINT AND BIDEFORD. 

A few miles westward the coast-line suddenly bends to the southward, the 
angle being marked by a wild, rocky headland known as Morte Point, which 
the Devonshire proverb describes as "the place on earth which Heaven made 
last and the devil will take first." It is a chaos of rock-ridges, the sea washing 
against it on three sides, and is a noted place for wrecks. Far out at sea can 
be seen a half-submereed black rock which the Normans christened the Morte 



MORTE POINT AND niDEFQRD. 



449 



Stone, or "Death Rock." To the southward sweeps a fringe of yellow sand 
around Morte Bay, and behind the headland is the little village of Morthoe, 
where Tracy is buried. Beyond the boundary of the bay, at Baggy Point, is 
another and broader bay, whose shores make a grand sweep to the westward 
again. This is Barnstaple Bay, into which flows a wide estuary forming the 
outlet of two rivers: the northernmost is the Taw, and at the head of its 
estuary is Barnstaple. The other is the Torridge, and upon it, at about nine 




MORTE POINT. 



miles distance from Barnstaple, is the small but prettier town of Bideford. 
This is described by Kingsley as a little white town, sloping upward from its 
broad tidal river, paved with yellow sands, and having a many-arched old 
bridge towards the uplands to the westward. The wooded hills close in above 
the town, but in front, where the rivers join, they sink into a hazy level of marsh 
and low undulations of sand. The town has stood almost as it is now since 
Grenvil, the cousin of William the Conqueror, founded it. It formerly enjoyed 
great commercial prosperity under the patronage of the Grenvilles, reaching 
its height in the seventeenth century. The old quay remains. The ancient 
bridge, which is a remarkable one, was built five hundred years ago, and is 
constructed on twenty-four piers, firmly founded, yet shaking under the toot- 
step.- The superstitious say it is of miraculous origin, for when they began 
to build it some distance farther up the river, each night invisible hands re- 
moved the stones to their present position. It is also a wealthy bridge and of 
noble rank, having its heraldic coat-of-arms (a ship and a bridge proper on a 

57 



45° 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



plain field) and owning broad estates, with the income of which " the said mirac- 
ulous bridge has from time to time founded chantries, built schools, waged 




BIDEFORD. 

suits-at-law, and, finally, given yearly dinners, and kept for that purpose the 
best-stocked cellar of wines in all Devon." 



CLOVELLY. 
The coast of Barnstaple Bay sweeps around to the westward again, and 

here, under the pre- 
cipitous crags, nest- 
ling in one of the most 
picturesque nooks in 
all England, is Clovel- 
lv. From an inland 
plateau of consider- 
able elevation the land 
falls steeply to the sea, 
j-'vr with a narrow strip 
ot sand or shingle 
sometimes inter- 
posed, whereon the 
surl dashes before it 
reaches the rocks. 
Dense foliage, with 
the main street, cLovELLY. here and there a pro- 

truding crag, overhangs the cliffs. Ravines occasionally furrow the rocky 




CLOVELLY. 



45' 



wall, and in one of these Clovelly is situated, beginning with some scattered 
houses on the margin of the plateau above, descending the cliff in one steep 
street, and spreading out about a miniature harbor on the edge of the sea. 
There are few such streets to be seen elsewhere — not made for wheeled vehi- 
cles, but paved in a series of broad steps, over which the donkeys and the 
population plod with the produce of the fleet of fishing-b oa ts the village owns. 
It is narrow, with strangely-shaped houses jumbled together alongside, and 
balconies and bay-windows, chimneys and gables — all mixed up too-ether. 
Here Kingsley spent most of his boyhood, and hither tlock the artists to paint 
odd pictures for almost every British art-exhibition. Its little pier was built in 




OLD HOUSES OX THE HEACH, CLOVELLY. 

Richard II. 's time, when as now it was a landing-place for the mackerel- and her- 
ring-boats. This quay has recently been somewhat enlarged. Clovelly Court, 
the home of the Careys, is near by, with its beautiful park extending out to 
the tall cliffs overhanging the sea. On one craggy point, known as Gallantry 
Bower, and five hundred feet above the waves, was an old watch-tower of the 
Normans, now reduced to a mere ring of stones ; and to the westward a lew 
miles the bold rocks of Hartland Point mark another angle in the coast as it 
bends southward towards Cornwall. Eleven miles out to sea, rising four hun- 
dred feet and guarded all around by grim precipices, is Lundy Island. Here 
in a little cove are some fishermen's huts, while up on the top is a lighthouse, 



452 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



and near it the ruins of the old Moresco Castle. We have already referred 
to Sir Walter Raleigh's judicial murder: it was accomplished mainly through 
the treachery of his near kinsman, Sir Lewis Stukely, then vice-admiral of 
Devon. This and other actions caused Stukely to be almost universally de- 
spised, and he was finally insulted by Lord Howard of Effingham, when he 
complained to the king. "What should I do with him?" asked James. "Hang 
him? On my sawl, mon, if I hung all that spoke ill of thee, all the trees in 
the island were too few." Being soon afterwards detected in the royal palace 
debasing the coin, he fled to Devon, a ruined man. But he found no friends, 
and, every door being closed against him, he sailed out to Lundy Island, and 
died alone in a chamber of the ruined castle. 



CORNWALL. 
Pursuing the bold shores of Cornwall southward, we pass many crags and 
headlands, notably the Duke of Cornwall Harbor, protected by high project- 
ing cliffs, and just below find the ruins of King Arthur's castle of Tintagel, 
located amid some of the most romantic scenery of this grand line of coast. 
Here King Arthur is supposed to have been born, and the fortress, built on a 
high rock almost surrounded by the sea, was evidently of great strength. Here 
on the shore are King Arthur's Cliffs, and their attractions, with the little church 
ot Tintagel and the partly-ruined fishing-town of Bossiney, make the place a 
popular resort for poets and painters. Not far away in the interior, and stand- 
ing near the Tamar 
River on the top of a 
steep hill, is Launces- 
ton Castle, with the 
town built on the ad- 
jacent slopes. The 
ruins, which are of 
great antiquity, cover 
considerable surface, 
the walls being ten or 
twelve feet thick, and 
the keep rising high 
upon the top of the 
hill, nearly one hun- 
dred feet in diameter. 
This keep is said to have been an ancient British structure. Old Roman and 
also leather coins have been found in it, and it was a renowned stronghold 




FOWEY PIER. 



THE LIZARD PENINSULA. 453 



when William the Norman came to England and rave it to Robert, Earl of 
More ton. It now belongs to the Duchy of Cornwall. It was garrisoned for 
Kino- Charles in the Civil War, and was one of his last supports. Westward 
in Cornwall is Camelford, over which frown the two Cornish mountains, Rowtor 
and Brown Willy, a short distance to the southward, rising respectively thir- 
teen hundred and thirteen hundred and eighty feet. The Cornish range forms 
the backbone of the narrow peninsula which now juts out to the southwest- 
ward, marking the extreme point of England, and down which we will grad- 
ually journey. Crossing the mountains, we come to Liskeard, in a beautiful 
country filled with ancient Roman remains. Going down to the southern 
coast, we reach Fowey with its picturesque harbor and pier, with the Sharpitor 
and Kilmarth Mountains beyond, twelve hundred and twelve hundred and 
seventy-seven feet high respectively. Fowey harbor, sheltered by high hills 
richly clothed with green, is the "haven under the hill" of which the balladist 
sings, and near its quaint old pier, almost covered with houses, is Fowey Church, 
recently effectually restored. 

THE LIZARD PENINSULA. 
The Cornish peninsula upon approaching its termination divides into two, 
with the semicircular sweep of Mount's Bay between them. To the south- 
ward juts out the Lizard, and to the westward Land's End. While the latter 
is the westernmost extremity of England, the Lizard is usually the earliest 
headland that greets the mariner. The Lizard peninsula is practically almost 
an island, the broad estuary of the Helford River on one side and a strange 
inlet called Loo Pool on the other narrowing its connecting isthmus to barely 
two miles width. To the northward of the Helford River is the well-known 
port of Falmouth. Inland are the great Cornwall tin- and copper-mines, the 
former having been worked for centuries, while the latter are now probably 
of the greater importance. Competition and the costlier working of the tin- 
mines have caused many of them to be abandoned. These metals are mostly 
mined on the black moorlands, which offer little attraction to the tourist, who 
gladly avoids them for the picturesque shores of Falmouth harbor. A broad 
estuary guarded by bold headlands forms Carrick Roads, and the western one 
of these also guards the entrance to Falmouth harbor, which Leland describes 
as being in his day " the principal haven of all Britain." Though long fre- 
quented, however, no town stood on its shores until the seventeenth century. 
When Raleigh came back from his voyage to Guiana there was but a single 
house on the shore, where his crew were lodged, and he, being impressed with 
the advantages of the location for a port, laid before Queen Elizabeth a plan for 



454 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



the foundation of a town. But it was a long while before anything- came of 
it, and the place was not named Falmouth or incorporated until the reign of 
Charles 11. It became a post-office packet-station for the Atlantic ports in the 
last century, and Byron in his clay described it as containing "many Quakers 
and much salt fish." Its Cornish name is Pen-combick, meaning " the village 
in the hollow of the headland," which has been corrupted by the mariner into 
" Penny-come-quick," because on one occasion the landlady of the solitary inn 
sold the liquor engaged for a part)' of visitors to a parcel of thirst)' Dutch 




PENDKNNIS C \sTI E. 



sailors who had just landed, and, being taken to task for it, explained that the 
"penny come so quick" she could not deny them. Pendennis Castle guards 
the entrance to Carrick Roads, and was built by Henry VIII., being enlarged 
by Elizabeth. It and Raglan were the last castles holding out for King Charles. 
Lightning greatly injured Pendennis in the last century. On the opposite 
portal of the harbor stands St. Mawe's Castle. The ramparts ot Pendennis 
afford a view of extreme beaut)'. 

On the narrow neck of land uniting the Lizard peninsula to the mainland 
stands Helston, formerly guarded by a castle that has long since disappeared, 
and named, we are told, from the great block of granite that once formed the 
portal of the infernal regions. The master ot those dominions once, when he 
went abroad, carried his front door with him, and was met in this neighborhood 
by St. Michael, whereupon there was a " bit of a fight " between the two adver- 
saries. His Satanic Majesty was defeated, and, dropping his front door, fled. 



456 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




The great boulder, which thus named the town, is built into a wall back of the 
Angel Inn, mm\ they hold an annual festival on May 8th to commemorate the 
event. Loo Pool cuts deeply into the land to the westward of Helston, and 

the district south of it is an 
elevated plateau, bare and 
treeless generally, but con- 
taining many pretty glens, 
while the shore is lined with 
sequestered coves. Here 
grow the Cornish heath- 
flowers, which are most 
beautiful in the early au- 
tumn, while the serpentine 
rocks of its grand sea-cliffs, 
relieved by sparkling gold- 

I.ION ROCK— MULLYON IN THE DISTANCE. CI1 CTVStals and VeillS of 

green, red, and white, make fine ornaments. Upon the coast, southward from 
Helston, is Mullyon Cove, a characteristic specimen of the Lizard scenery. A 
glen winds down to the sea, displacing the crags to get an outlet, and dis- 
closing their beautiful serpentine veins. A pyramidal rock rises on one hand, 
a range of serpentine cliffs on the 
other, and a flat-topped island in 
front. In the serpentine cliffs is the 
portal of a cave that can be pene- 
trated lor over two hundred feet, and 
was a haunt of the smug-criers in for- 
mer days, the revenue officers gene- 
rail) - winking at them for a share of 
the spoils. We are told that in the 
last century the smugglers here had 
six vessels, manned by two hundred 
and thirty-iour men and mounting 
fifty-six cannon — a formidable fleet — 
and when Falmouth got a collector 
sufficiently resolute to try to break them up, they actually posted handbills 
offering rewards for his assassination. At one place on shore they had a bat- 
tery of six-pounders, which did not hesitate to fire on the king's ships when they 
became too inquisitive. The coast is full of places about which tales are told 
of the exploits of the smugglers, but the crime has long since become extinct 




CAVE AT MULLYON. 



KYNANCE COVE AND LIZARD HEAD. 



457 




rRAUANACK POINT. 



there because it no longer pays. South of Mullyon are the bold headlands ot 
Pradanack Point and Vellan Head, while beyond we come to the most noted 
spot on the Lizard peninsular coast. 



KYNANCE COVE AND LIZARD HEAD. 
Kynance Cove is the opening of one of the many shallow valleys indenting 
the inland plateau, with crags and skerries thrown over the sea, showing that 




KYNANCE C0V1 

the cliffs on the shore have not, as usual, maintained an unbroken tront to the 

5S 



458 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



waves, but have been knocked about in wild confusion. Groups of islands 
dot the cove; Steeple Rock rears its solitary pinnacle aloft; the Lion Rock 
crouches near the southern verge. It is as wild a place as can well be imag- 
ined, and at low water strips of sand connect these rocks with the mainland, 
though the quickly-rising waters often compel the visitor to run for it. At tin- 
water's edge, when the title is low, little wave-worn caverns are disclosed in the 
cliffs which are known as the " 1 >rawing-Room," the " Parlor." etc. On the 
smooth face of the landward slope of one of the larger islands there are two 

orifices looking like 



the slit of a letter-box. 
The upper is called the 
" Post-Office," and the 
lower one the " Bel- 
lows." It you hold a 
sheet of paper in the 
former a gust of air 
will suddenly suck it 
into the aperture. 
Then it you look into 
the " Post-Office " to 
investigate its secrets, 
a column of spray will 
as suddenly deluge 
you with a first-class 
shower-bath. This is 
the post-office, lizard point. on Asparagus Islaiui, 

and by climbing to the top ol the rock the mystery is solved. The rock is 
almost severed by a fissure opening towards the sea: a wave surges in and 
spurts from the orifices on the landward side, then recedes and sucks the air 
back through them. From the cove at Kynance down to the extremity of the 
Lizard the scenery is everywhere fine. Here is the southernmost extremity 
of England, there being three headlands jutting into the sea near one another, 
the westernmost being the Old Lizard Head. Upon the middle one are the 
lighthouses that warn the mariner. Biack cliffs above, and a sea studded with 
reefs below, give this place a forbidding aspect. One of the reefs is known as 
• Man-of-W ar Rock," from the wreck of a vessel there, and the weapons cast 
upon the neighboring shore gave it the name of the "Pistol Meadow." The 
other headland supports a telegraph-station, and a submarine cable goes down 
into the sea, to reappear again upon the distant shores of Portugal. From 




KYNANCE COVE AND LIZARD HEAD. 



459 




here the signals are sent that give notice ot arriving ships. Beneath the cliffs 
rises out of the sea that strange black crag, looking like a projecting pulpit, 
which is known as the Bumble Rock. In the green sward above the cliffs a 
yawning gulf opens its rocky mouth, and is 
called the Lion's Den. It terminates in a 
rocky tunnel which communicates with the 
sea through a natural archway. This was a 
cavern, the rocky roof of which fell in about 
thirty-five years ago. Nestling under the 
middle headland is the tiny port of Polpeor, 
tin- little harbor oi the Lizard, a fishermen's 
paradise in a small way. Around on the 
eastern coast of the peninsula the rocks are 
also fine, and here are the fishing-villages oi 
Lizard Town and Landewednack, the latter 
having a strange old church, reputed to be 
the last in which a sermon was preached in 
the Cornish tongue. The grave of one of the 
rectors tells that he lived to be one hundred 

and twenty years old, for people live long in this delicious climate. These 
villages are devoted to the pilchard-fishery, and during the season the lookout- 
men can be seen perched on the cliffs watching for the approach of a shoal, to 
warn the fishing-boats that are ready to put to sea from the sheltered coves 

below. Great crags are tum- 
bled into the ocean, and the 
coast abounds in caves, with 
occasionally a quarry for the 
serpentine. Beyond can be 
traced the dim outline of the 
headlands guarding Falmouth 
entrance. This is a unique 
district, whose rock- bound 
coast is a terror to the mar- 
iner, but a delight to the ge- 
ologist and artist, and whose 
recesses, where the Cornish 
dialect still flourishes among the old folk, are about the only places in Eng- 
land not yet penetrated by the railway, which has gridironed the British king- 
dom everywhere else. 




INK LIZAKD. 



460 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT. 

The western peninsula of Cornwall juts far out beyond Mount's Bay, which 

acquires its name from what is probably the most remarkable crag- in all this 

wonderful region. This was the Iktis of the ancient geographers, an object 

so conspicuous as to attract attention in all ages. It is a mass oi granite 

rising from the sands, covering about 
twenty-five acres, and the top ot the 
church which crowns it is elevated 
two hundred and thirty-eight feet. 
|k It is impossible by either pen 
or pencil to give an adequate 
idea of St. Michael's Mount 
— of the shattered masses of 
the rock itself, its watch- 
turrets and batteries, the 
turf and sea-plants niched 
in its recesses, and the gray, 
lichen-covered towers that 
rise from the summit. Cor- 
nish tradition says that the 
giant Cormoran built the 
first fortress here ; and he is 
one of those unfortunate 
giants whose fate is told 
under the name of Corin- 
st Michaels mount. cus jn the veritable history 

of Jack the Giant-killer. The archangel St. Michael afterwards appeared to 
some hermits on its rocks, and this gave the mount its religious character and 
name. Milton has written of it in Lycidas : 

"Or whether thou to our moist views denied, 
Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old. 
Where the great vision of the guarded mount 
Looks towards Namancos and Bayona's hold." 

It was always a strongly-defended place, and became a Benedictine monas- 
tery — at first as an offshoot of the greater abbey of St. Michael in Normandy, 
which in situation it resembles, and afterwards as an independent establish- 
ment. It was a stronghold as well as a religious house, however, and was 
notorious as the "back-door of rebellion," frequently besieged. The crowning 




PENZANCE AND THE LAND'S END. 



461 



square tower is that of the monastic church, and St. Michael's Chair is on the 
battlements — a stone beacon which is of great importance to all newly-married 
couples in that region, for it bestows the ascendency on the husband or wife 
who first sits in it. It is of this chair Southey's ballad about the adventurous 
Rebecca was written ; and he tells that just as she was installed, 

" Merrily, merrily rang the bells, 
And out Rebecca was thrown." 

The family of St. Aubyn hold the mount, and they have recently thoroughly 
restored the buildings, adding some fine apartments. It is accessible only 
when the receding tide leaves bare the natural causeway that connects the 
island with the shore. 



PENZANCE ANH THE LAND'S END. 

This whole peninsula is filled with hut-villages, cromlechs, and other pre- 
historic remains of its ancient people, but we have not the space to devote to 
their description, however agreeable it might be. Hill-castles and caves are 
also frequent, each with its traditions. The chief town is Penzance, or the 
" Holy Headland," jut- 
ting out into Mount's 
Bay, where once was a 
chapel dedicated to St. 
Anthony, who with St. 
Michael kept guard 
over this favored re- 
gion. Here is another 
prosperous seat of the 
pilchard - fishery, and 
among its people the 
favorite toast is to the 
three Cornish products, 
"tin, fish, and copper." 
Once, they tell us, sev- old market, penzance. 

enty-five millions of these fish were caught in a single day. They rise in 
small shoals from the depths of the sea, then unite into larger ones, and finally, 
about the end of July, combine in a mighty host, led by the "Pilchard King" 
and most powerful of the tribe. The lookouts on the crags give warning, and 
then begins the extraordinary migration that calls out all the Cornish fisher- 
men. Pursued by hordes of sea-birds and predatory fish, the pilchards advance 




4 " -' 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



towards the land in such vast numbers as to discolor the water and almost 
to impede the passage of vessels. The enormous fish-army passes the Land's 
End, a grand spectacle, moving along parallel to the shore, and then comes the 
harvest. On the southward of the granite mass that forms the extremity of 
the peninsula rises the Logan Rock, the entire headland being defended by 
remains of ancient intrenchments. The Logan itself is a granite block weighing 
sixty tons, and so nicely balanced that it will oscillate. Near here, as we go 

out towards the western extremity of the pen- 
old churches, many ancient 
ielded up their chiel curios- 
for museums, and remark- 
cliffs projecting into the 
the strangest ot them being 
loled headland of Penwith," 
a mass of columnar gran 
ite which the waves have 
shattered into deep fis- 
sures. Then beyond is 
the Land's End itself, the 
most westerly point in 
England, with the rocks 
of the Longships out in 
the water with their guar- 
dian lighthouse. The extreme point of the Land's End is about sixty feet 
high and pierced by a natural tunnel, but the cliffs on each side rise to a greater 
elevation. The faint outlines of the Scilly Islands are seen on the distant hori- 
zon, but all else is a view over the boundless sea. The Land's End is a vast 
aggregation of granite, which Sir Humphre) Davy, the Cornish chemist and 
poet, who was born at Penzance, has thus depicted: 

■' i )n the sea 
The -.unlit,-. mis tremble, .mil the purple 
Illumes the dark Bolerimn : seat of storms , 
High are his granite rocks; Ins frowning brow 
Hangs o'er the- smiling ocean. In his caves 
["here sleep the haggard spun- of the storm. 
Wild, dreary, are the schistine rocks around, 

led by the wave, where to the breeze 
The haggard cormorant shrieks ; and far beyond, 
Where the gi mingles with the skv. 

Are seen the doud-like islands gray in mists.'" 




THE LAND S END. 



VIII. 
LONDON, TO THE SOUTH COAST. 

The Surrey Side — The Chalk Downs — Guildford- The I log's Bai k — Albury Down— An hbishop Abbot — St. 
Catharine's Chapel— St. Martha's Chapel— Albury Park — John Evelyn — Henry Drummond — Alder- 
shot Camp — Leith Hill — Redland's Wood— Holmwood Park — Dorking — Weller and the Marquis of 
Granby Inn — Deepdene — Betchworth Castle— The River Mole- Boxhill- The Fox and Hounds — The 
Denbies — Ranmore Common —Battle of Dorking — Wotton Church — Epsom — Reigate — Piern 
House — Longfield — The Weald of Kent — Goudhurst— Bedgebury Park — Kilndown — Cranbrook — 
Bloody Baker's Prison — Sissinghurst — Bayham Abbey — Tunbridge Castle — Tunbridge Wells — Pens- 
hurst— Sir Philip Sidney — Hever Castle — Anne Boleyn— Knole — Leeds Castle -Tenti rden Steeple and 
the Goodwin Sands — Rochester — Gad's Hill— Chatham — Canterbury Cathedral — St. Thomas a Be< ki t 
— Falstaff Inn — Isle of Thanet — Ramsgate — Margate — North Foreland — The Cinque Ports— Sandwich 
— Rutupiae — Ebbsfleet— Goodwin Sands -Walmei ( astle- South Foreland— Dover— Shakespean 
Cliff— Folkestone — Hythe — Romney — Dungeness— Rye — Winchelsea — Hastings — Pcvensey — I lails- 
ham— Hurstmonceux Castle — Beachy Head — Brighton — The Aquarium —The South Downs — Dich- 
ling Beacon — Newhaven — Steyning — Wiston Manor — Chanctonbury King Arundel Castle - I hi< hester 
— Sclsey Bill — Goodwood — Bignor — Midhurst— Cowdray — Dunford House — Selborne I Gilbert White ; 
his book ; his house, sun-dial, and church — Greatham Church —Winchester — The New Forest — Lynd- 
hurst — Minsted Manor — Castle Malwood — Death, of William Rufus— Rufus's Stone — Beaulicu Abbey 
— Brockenhurst — Ringwood — Lydington — Christchurch — Southampton -Netley Abbey— Calshot ( astle 
— The Solent — Portsea Island — Portsmouth — Gosport -Spithead— The Isle of Wight — High Down 
Alum Bay — Yarmouth — Cowes — Osborne House— Ryde Brading -Sandown — Shanklm Chine — non- 
church — The Undercliff — Ventnor — Niton — St. Lawrence Church— St. Catharine's Down — Blackgang 
Chine — Carisbrooke Castle Newport Freshwater -Brixton — The Needles. 

GUILDFORD. 

CROSSING over the Thames to the Surrey side, we proceed southward to 
that vast chalk-measure which, like a miniature mountain-wall, divides 
the watershed draining- into that river from the Weald of Sussex and of Kent. 
This chalky hill is here and there breached by the valley of a stream, and 
through it the Wey and the Mole, to which we have heretofore referred, flow 
northward to join the current of the Thames. In the gap formed by each 
there is a town, Guildford standing alongside the Wey, and Dorking on the 
Mole. Both develop magnificent scenery on the flanks of the chalk-ranges 
that surround them ; and we will now go about thirty miles south-west from 
London and visit Guildford, whose origin is involved in the mystery that sur- 
rounds the early history ol so many English towns, it was a royal manor in 



4»4 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



the days of King Alfred, being granted to his nephew, and it was here a few 
years before the Norman Conquest that the setheling .Elfred was captured. 
Harold, the son of Canute, wished to destroy him to secure the succession 
to the throne. He forged a letter purporting to he from his mother. Queen 
Emma, inviting .Elfred to come to England, and sent his minister Godwine 
forward, who met and swore allegiance to /Elfred. lodging him at Guildford, 
and most of his comrades in separate houses there. In the night Harold's 
emissaries suddenly appeared, slew his comrades, and carried /Elfred off to 




HIGH STREET, GUILDFORD. 

Ely, where he was loaded with fetters, ami, being tried by some sort ol 
tribunal, was blinded and then put to death. The monks of Ely enshrined 
his body, and of course miracles were wrought by it. The castle was built on 
tlie Wey titter the Norman Conquest, and Henry II. made it a park and royal 
residence, so that it was long called the King's Manor. In Charles l.'s time it 
was granted to the Earl of Annandale. The situation o( Guildford is pic- 
turesque; the chalk-range is narrowed to a line of steep, ridgy hills almost 
as straight as a wall and severed by the valley of the Wey. This pretty stream 
escapes from the Weald to the southward between the Hog's Back on the 
west and Albury Down on the east, the valley narrowing so as to torm a 
natural gateway just where the river emerges. A bridge was built here, and 
this determined the site of the town, which straggles up the Hog's Back and 
the Down, and also spreads out in the broadening valley of the emerging river. 
High up in the hills that make the eastern slope of the valley is the old gray 



GUILDFORD. 46; 



castle-keep, with an ancient church-tower lower down and a new church by the 
waterside. From the bridge runs straight up this hill the chief thoroughfare 
of the town, High Street. The shapeless ruins of the old castle, the keep 
alone being kept in good condition, are not far away from the upper part of 
this street, crowning an artificial mound encompassed by what once was a 
ditch, but now is chiefly a series of gardens. The ancient church-tower, part 
way down the hill, is dedicated to St. Mary, but has been shorn of its original 
proportions in order to widen a street. This was done, we are told, for the 
convenience of George IV., who used to pass in a coach along this street on 
his way from London to Brighton. The tower is low and unassuming, and is 
supposed to date from the time of King Stephen. The new church of St. 
Nicholas stands by the river, and Guildford also possesses another church built 
of brick. None of these churches have spires, and therefore some local wit 
has written, 

" Poor Guildford, proud people ; 
Three churches — no steeple." 

The High Street climbs the hill past many quaint buildings, particularly the 
old town-hall, where the hill is somewhat less steep. Its upper stories project 
beyond the lower, being supported by carved beams, and the town-clock hangs 
over the street. Abbot's Hospital, built by Guildford's most noted towns- 
man, George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, is also in this street. He was 
born in a humble cottage, and the legend tells us that his mother, before the 
event, dreamed that if she could eat a pike she would have a son who would 
be a great man. She was unable to buy the fish anywhere, but, drawing a 
pailful of water from the river, to her surprise found a pike in it. When 
George was born the tale was told, and several distinguished people offered 
to become his sponsors. They gave him a good education, and he graduated 
at Balliol College, Oxford, and was made Dean of Westminster. He was one 
of the revisers of the Scriptures who prepared the revision in the seventeenth 
century, was made a bishop, and in 161 1 Archbishop of Canterbury. His 
brother was Bishop of Salisbury, and another brother Lord Mayor of London. 
He was a great hunter, as were most ecclesiastics at that time, and in 1621, 
when shooting at a buck, his arrow accidentally pierced the arm of a gate- 
keeper, who soon bled to death. The archbishop was horror-stricken, settled 
an annuity upon the widow, and to the close of his life observed Tuesday, the 
day of the accident, as a weekly fast. This occurrence raised a hot dispute in 
the Church as to whether the archbishop, by having blood on his hands, had 
become incapable of discharging the duties of his sacred office. He retired to 
his hospital at Guildford while the inquiry was conducted, was ultimately exon- 
59 



466 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



erated, and in 1625 died. This hospital is built around a small quadrangle, 
and in its gateway-tower the unfortunate "King Monmouth" was lodged on 
his last journey from Sedgemoor to London. Abbot, according to the inscrip- 
tion on the walls, founded this charity for "a master, twelve brethren, and eight 
sisters" — all to be unmarried and not less than sixty years of age, and chosen 
from Guildford, preference to be- given to "such as have borne office or been 
o-ood traders in the town, or such as have been soldiers sent, and who have 
ventured their lives or lost their blood for their prince and country." The 
number of inmates is now increased, the endowment having accumulated. 




RUINS OF ST. CATHARINES CHAPEL, FROM THE RIVER. 

Guildford used to maintain the piety of its people by requiring that all should 
attend church and listen to a sermon, or else be fined a shilling. Over on the 
other side of the valley, on a grassy spur protruding from the Hog's Back, are 
the ruins of St. Catharine's Chapel, built in the lourteenth century. The local 
tradition tells that this and St. Martha's Chapel, on an adjacent hill, were; built 
by two sister-giantesses, who worked with a single hammer, which the)' thing 
from hill to hill to each other as required. St. Catharine's Chapel long since fell 
in ruins, and not far away on the slope, St. Catharine's Spring flows perennially. 
On Albury Down is a residence of the Duke of Northumberland, Albury Park, 
laid out in the seventeenth century by John Evelyn, famous for his devotion to 
rural beauties, and the residence during the present century of Henry Drum- 
mond, the banker, politician, and theologian, the most caustic critic of his time 
in Parliament, and the great promoter of the Church of the Second Advent. 



ALDERSHOT CAMP. 



46/ 



ALDERSHOT CAMP. 
A few miles to the westward, mar Farnborough, over the border in Hamp- 
shire, is Aldershot Camp, permanently established there in 1854. The Basing- 
stoke Canal flows through a plateau elevated about three hundred and twenty- 
feet above the sea, and divides the location into a north and south camp, the 
latter occupying much the larger surface and containing most of the public 
buildings. On a central hillock covered by clumps of fir trees are the head- 
quarters of the general in command when the troops are being exercised and 
going through their manoeuvres. The Long Valley stretches to the westward, 
terminating in a steep hill rising six hundred feet, from which the best view of 
the military movements is had on a field-day. The two camps cover about 
seven square miles, and they commonly contain about twelve thousand troops 
during the season for the mancuuvres. There are long rows of wooden huts 
for the soldiers, and there are also barracks, hospitals, and other necessary 
buildings, the cost of the establishment of this military depot having exceeded 
£7,000,000 already. The annual reviews take place from June to September, 
the regiments of volunteers being detailed in turn to co-operate with the 
regular troops, so as to gain a practical knowledge of military duties. 

DORKING. 
Proceeding eastward along the chalk-hills for about twelve miles, we come 




LEITH HILL. 



468 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE A.XD DESCRIPTIVE. 



to the breach made in them by the valley of the Mole for the passage of that 
strange little river. Here, however, appears a second and parallel range of 
hills, distant about four miles, the long and generally flat-topped ridge culmi- 
nating in the commanding summit of Leith Hill. This is the highest ground 
in this part of England, rising nearly one thousand feet, a broad summit 
sloping gradually down towards the north, but presenting to the south a 
steep and, in places, a precipitous ascent. At its foot is the residence known 
as Leith Hill Place, where Mr. Hull lived in the last century, and built the 
tower lor an outlook that crowns its summit, leaving orders in his will that he 




THE OLD DOVECOTE, HoI.MWf X >I) I'ARK, SURREY. 



should be buried there. The tower was partially burned in 1877, but has been 
restored. The view from the top of Leith Hill is grand, although it takes 
some exertion to get there, and it discloses a panorama ot typical English 
scenery over the white chalk-clowns, dappled with green and the darker wood- 
land, with the Thames lowlands far away to the north, while to the southward 
the land falls abruptly to the great valley of the Weald, a plain of rich red 
earth, with woods and grainfields and hedgerows stretching away to the dim 
line of the South Downs at the horizon. Pleasant little villas and old-time 
comfortable farm-houses are dotted all about with their dovecotes and out- 
buildings. To the eastward is the Redlands Wood, crowned by a tall silver 



DORKING. 



469 



fir, and just beyond is Holmwood Common, whereon donkeys graze anil (locks 
of geese patiently await the September plucking. Here, at Holmwood Park, 
is one of those ancient yet still populous dovecotes that contribute so much 
to enhance the beauties of English rural scenery. 

Dorking lies in the valley of the Mole, just south of the high chalk-ranges, 
at the foot of wooded hills, and with its bordering meadows stretching out to 
the river-bank. It is an ancient town, appearing in the Domesday Book under 
the name of Dorchinges, and standing on the route which Julius Caesar took 




THE WHITE HORSE INN. DORKING. 



through these hills on his invasion of Britain. After the Norman Conquest 
the manor became the property of Earl Warrenne, and as a favorite halting- 
place on the road between London and the south coast in the Middle Ages it 
throve greatly and was noted for the number of its inns. Its chief street — 
High Street — runs parallel with the chalk-hills, and presents a picturesque 
variety of old-time houses, though none are of great pretensions. Among 
them is the long, low structure, with a quaint entrance-gate in the middle, sug- 
gestive of the days before railroads, and known as the "White Horse Inn." 
The ancient "Cardinal's Cap" has been transformed into the "Red Lion Inn," 
and the "Old King's Head," the most famous of these hostelries, has been 
removed to make room for the post-office. This latter inn was the original ol 
"The Marquis of Granby, Dorking," where that substantial person, Mr. Wei- 



470 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



ler, Senior, lived, and under the sway of Mrs. Weller the veteran coachman 
smoked his pipe and practised patience, while the " shepherd " imbibed hot 
pineapple rum and water and dispensed spiritual consolation to the flock. An 
old stage-coachman who lived years ago at Dorking is said to have been 
Dickens's original for this celebrated character, and the townsfolk still talk of 
the venerable horse-trough that stood in front of the inn wherein the bereaved 
landlord immersed Mr. Stiggins's head after kicking him out of the bar. 

The parish church is the only public building of any pretension in Dorking, 
and it is quite new, replacing another structure whose registers go back to the 
sixteenth century, containing, among other curious entries, the christening in 
1562 of a child whose fate is recorded in these words: " Who, scoffing at 
thunder, standing under a beech, was stroke to death, his clothes stinking with 
a sulphurous stench, being about the age of twenty years or thereabouts, at 
Mereden House." The Dorking fowls all have the peculiarity of an extra claw 
on each foot, being white and speckled, and a Roman origin being claimed for 
the breed, which is most delicate in flavor and commands a high price. On 
the southern outskirts of the town is Deepdene, a mansion surrounded by 
magnificent trees and standing on the slope of a hill. It was the home of the 
Hopes, its late owner, H. T. Hope, having been the author of the novel Anas- 
tasius. He was a zealous patron of art, and first brought I horwaldsen into 
public notice by commissioning him to execute his " )ason " in marble. The 
house contains many rare gems of sculpture, including Canova's "Venus Ris- 
ing from the Bath," with paintings by Raphael, Paul Veronese, and others. It 
was here that Disraeli wrote the greater part of Coniugsby. A dene or glade 
opening near the house gives the place its name, the grounds being extensive 
and displaying gardens and fine woods. The scenery of this glade is beautiful, 
while from the terrace at the summit of the hill, where there is a Doric temple, 
a magnificent view can be had far away over the lowlands. Deepdene is at- 
tractive both within and without, for its grand collection of art-treasures vies 
with Nature in affording delight to the visitor. The ruins of Betchworth Cas- 
tle, built four hundred years ago, art; alongside the Mole. "The soft wind- 
ings of the silent Mole" around Betchworth furnished a theme for Thomson, 
while Milton calls it " the sullen Mole that runneth underneath," and Pope, 
"the sullen Mole that hides his diving flood." Spenser has something to say 
of the 

" Mole, tliat like a nousling mole doth make 

His way still underground till Thames he overtake." 

This peculiarity comes from the river hiding itself under Box Hill, where. 



DORKING. 47 1 



after disappearing for about two miles, it comes bubbling up out of the ground 
again. This disappearance of streams in hilly regions is not unusual. Box 
Hill, beneath whose slopes the Mole passes, is part of the great chalk-range 
rising steeply on the eastern side of the gap where the river-valley breaks 
through. Its summit is elevated four hundred feet, the hill being densely 
wooded and containing large plantations of box, whence its name. One of 
these box-groves covers two hundred and thirty acres. On the brow of Box 
Hill, Major Labilliere, a singular character, was buried in 1800. He lived in 
Dorking, ami, becoming convinced that the world had been turned topsy- 
turvy, selected his grave, and gave instructions that he should be buried head 
downward, so that at the final setting right of mundane affairs he would rise 
correctly. In the Mole Valley, at the base of Box Hill, at a pretty little house 
called the " Fox and Hounds," Keats finished his poem of Endymion, and here 
Lord Nelson spent his last days in England before leaving on the expedition 
that closed with his greatest victory and death at Trafalgar. 

Upon the hill on the western side of the gap is the Denbies, from which 
there is a view all the way to London. At the back of this high hill is Ran- 
more Common. The Denbies are the scene of the " Battle of Dorking," 
having been held by the English defensive army in that imaginary and disas- 
trous conflict wherein German invaders land upon the southern coasts, destroy 
the British fleets by torpedoes, triumphantly march to the base of the chalk- 
ranges, fight a terrific battle, force their way through the gaps in the hills, cap- 
ture London, and dethrone England from her high place among the great 
powers of Europe. This was a summer-time magazine article, written to call 
English attention to the necessity of looking after the national defences ; and 
it had a powerful effect. Westward of Dorking there is fine scenery, amid 
which is the little house known as the " Rookery," where Malthus the political 
economist was born in 1766. Wotton Church stands alongside the road near 
by, almost hid by aged trees — a building of various dates, with a porch and 
stunted tower. Here John Evelyn was taught when a child, and the graves 
of his family are in a chapel opening from the north aisle. Wotton House, 
where Evelyn lived, is in the adjacent valley and at the foot of the famous 
Leith Hill. His favorite pastime was climbing up the hill to see over the dozen 
counties the view discloses, with the sea far away to the southward on the 
Sussex coast. The house is an irregular brick building of various dates, the 
earliest parts built in Elizabethan days, and it contains many interesting relics 
of Evelyn, whose diary has contributed so much to English history from the 
reign of Charles I. to Queen Anne. He was a great botanist, and has left a 
prominent and valuable work in Sy/zur, his treatise on trees. It was to the 



4J2 



E AC LAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



north-west of Wotton, on a tract of common known as Evershed Rough, that 
Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, while riding with Earl Granville in 1873, was thrown 
from the saddle by his stumbling horse, and striking the ground with his head 
was almost immediately killed. A cross marks the sad and lonely spot. 

EPSOM AND REIGATE. 
On the northern verge of the chalk-downs, and about fifteen miles south of 
London, is the famous race-course at Epsom, whither much of London goes 
for a holiday on the " Derby Day." Epsom is a large and rather rambling 
town located in a depression in the hills, and two hundred years ago was a 
fashionable resort for its me- 
dicinal waters, so that it soon 
grew from a little village to 
a gay watering-place. Its 
water was strongly impreg- 




I'lKUKKI'OlNT, SURREY. 



nated with sulphate of magnesia, making the Epsom salts of the druggist, and 
also with small quantities of the chlorides of magnesium and calcium. None 
of these salts are now made at Epsom, they being manufactured artificially in 
large amounts at a low price. The Epsom well, however, that produced the 
celebrated waters, still remains on the common near the town. From a water- 
ing-place Epsom became transformed into a race-ground about a hundred 
years ago. There is a two days' meeting in April, but the great festival comes 
in May, continuing four days from Tuesday to Friday before Whitsuntide, unless 
Easter is in March, when it occurs in the week after Whitsunday. Wednesday 
is the grand day, when a vast crowd gathers to witness the Derby race, estab- 
lished in 1780, and named from the Earl of Derby's seat at Woodmansterne, 



EPSOM AND REIGA TE. 



473 



near by. This is a race of a mile and a half for three-year olds. The Oaks 
Stakes are run for on Friday over the same course, but for three-year-old fillies 
only. This race is named from Lambert's Oaks, near the neighboring village 
of Banstead. The race-hill is elevated about five hundred feet above the sea, 
and the grand stand, which is the most substantial in England, affords mag- 
nificent views, stretching far away beyond Windsor Castle and the dome of St. 
Paul's in London. Epsom Downs on the Derby Day show the great annual 
festival of England, but at other times the town is rather quiet, though its 
Spread Eagle Inn is usually a head-quarters for the racing fraternity. 

The ruins of Reigate Castle are a short distance south of Epsom, the pretty 




^frys.. * ...- ^f*%' ; :-^ ?.;-'- 



LONGFIELD, EAST SHEEN, SURREY. 

village of Reigate standing near the head of the lovely Holmsdale on the 
southern verge of the chalk-ranges. Beautiful views and an unending varia- 
tion of scenery make this an attractive resort. Surrey is full ol pleasant places, 
disclosing quaint old houses that bring clown to us the architecture of the time 
of Elizabeth anil the days of the "good Queen Anne." Some of these build- 
ings, which so thoroughly exemplify the attractions of the rural homes of Eng- 
land, are picturesque and noteworthy. As specimens of many we present 

Pierrepoint House anil Longfield, East Sheen. These are the old models now 

fid 



474 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



being reproduced by modern architects, combining novelty without and com- 
fort within, and they are just far enough from London to make them pleasant 
country-houses, with .ill the advantage of city luxuries. 

THE WEALD OF KENT. 
Proceeding eastward along the chalk-downs and over the border into Kent, 
we reach the Wealden formation, the " wooded land " of that county — so named 
by the Saxons — which stretches between the North and South Downs, the chalk- 
formations bordering this primeval forest, but now almost entirely transformed 
into a rich agricultural country. The Weald is a region of great fertility and high 
cultivation, still bearing numerous copses of well-grown timber, the oak being 
the chief, and furnishing in times past the material for many of its substantial 
oaken houses. The little streams that meander among the undulating hills of 
this attractive region are nearly all gathered together to form the Medway, 
which flows past Maidstone to join the Thames. It was the portions of the 
Weald around Goudhurst that were memorable for the exploits of Radford 
and his band, the originals of G. P. R. James's Smuggleis. Goudhurst church- 
tower, finely located on one of the highest hills ol the Wealden region, gives 
a grand view on all sid s, especially to the southward over Mr. Bereslord 
Hope's seat at Bedgebury Park. In this old church of St. Mary are buried the 
Bedgeburys and the Cole peppers. Their ancient house, surrounded by a moat, 
has been swept away, and the present mansion was built in the seventeenth 
century out of the proceeds of a sunken Spanish treasure-ship, Sir James 
Hayes, who built the house, having gone into a speculation with Lord Falk- 
land and others to recover the treasure. This origin of Bedgebury House is 
recorded on its foundation-stone : it has been greatly enlarged by successive 
owners, and is surrounded by ornamental gardens and grounds, with a park 
of wood, lake, ami heather covering two thousand acres. In the neighboring 
church ol Kilndown, Field-marshal Beresford, the former owner oi Bedgebury, 
reposes in a canopied sepulchre. Just to the eastward is Cranbrook, the chief 
market- town of the Weald, the ancient sanctuary of the Anabaptists and the 
historical centre of the Flemish cloth-trade, which used to be carried on by 
the "old gray-coats of Kent." Their descendants still live in the old-time lac- 
tones, which have been converted into handsome modern houses. Edward 
III. first induced the Flemings to settle in Kent and some other parts of Eng- 
land, and from his reign until the last century the broadcloth manufacture con- 
centrated at Cranbrook. When Queen Elizabeth once visited the town she 
was entertained at a manor about a mile from Cranbrook, and walked thence 
into the town upon a carpet, laid down the whole way, made of the same cloth 



TIFF. WEALD OF KENT. 



475 




RUINS OF SISSINGHURST. 



that her loyal men of Kent wore on their backs. In Cranbrook Church were 
held the fierce theological disputes of Queen Mary's reign which resulted in 
the imprisonment of the Anabaptists and other dissenters by Chancellor Baker. 
< >ver the south porch is the chamber with grated windows known as " Bloody 
Baker's Prison." Among the old customs surviving at Cranbrook is that 
which strews the path of the newly-wedded couple as they leave the church 
with emblems of the bridegroom's trade. The blacksmith walks upon scraps 
ol iron, the shoemaker on leather 
parings, the carpenter on shavings, 
and the butcher on sheepskins. In 
an adjacent glen almost surround- 
ed by woods are the ruins of Sis- 
si nghurst, where Chancellor Baker 
lived and built the stately mansion of \{ 
Saxenhurst, from which the present 
name of its ruins is derived. The 
artists Horsley and Webster lived 
at Sissinghurst and Cranbrook for 
many years, and found then- fre- 
quent subjects of rustic -study. The Sissinghurst ruins are fragmentary, ex- 
cepting the grand entrance, which is well preserved. Baker's Cross survives 
to mark the spot where the Anabaptists had a skirmish with their great enemy; 
and the legend is that he was killed there, though history asserts that this the- 
ological warrior died in his bed peaceably some time afterwards in London. 

Near Lamberhurst, on the Surrey border and on the margin of the Teise, 
is the Marquis of Camden's seat at Bayham Abbey. Its ruins include a 
church, a gateway, and some of the smaller buildings. It was once highly 
attractive, though small, and its ruined beauty is now enhanced by the care 
with which the ivy is trained over the walls and the greensward floor is 
smoothed. Ralph de Dene founded this abbey about the year 1200, and after 
the dissolution Queen Elizabeth granted it to Viscount Montague. It was 
bought in the last century by Chief-Justice Pratt, whose son, the chancellor, 
became Marquis of Camden. The modern mansion is a fine one, and from it 
a five-mile walk through the woods leads to Tunbridge on the Medway. Chief 
among the older remains of this pleasantly-located and popular town is Tun- 
bridge Castle, its keep having stood upon a lofty mound above the river. 
This " Norman Mound," as it is called, is now capped with ruined walls, and 
an arched passage leads from it to the upper story of the elaborate gate-house, 
still in excellent preservation. Richard Fitzgilbert built the keep, and ruled 



470 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



the " League of Tunbridge," but his castle, after a long siege by Henry III., was 
taken away from his Miccessor., who assumed the name o\ Gilbert de Clare. 

From the De Clares the stronghold 
passed to the Audleys and Staffbrds, 
and it is now held by Lord Stafford. 
! lie gate house is a tine structure, 
square in form, with round towers 
at each corner. The ruins are 
richly adorned with mouldings and 
other decorations, and within is a 
handsome state-apartment. Tun- 
bridge is a quiet town, standing 
where five of the tributaries of the 
Medway come together, over which 
it has as many stone bridges. One 
ot these streams, the Tun. gives the 
town its name. In St. Stephen's Church, a badly mutilated building with a 
fine spire, many of the De Clares are buried, and the quaint half-timbered 
building of the " Chequers Inn " helps maintain the picturesque appearance of 
the Tunbridge High Street. The spa of Tunbridge Wells, with its chalybeate 
springs and baths, is a tew miles southward, but the days of its greatest ;Mory 
have passed away, though fashion to a moderate extent still haunts its pump- 
room and parade. This famous watering-place stands in a contracted valley 
enclosed by the three lulls known as Mount Ephraim, Mount Zion, and Mount 
Pleasant, 




TUNBRIDGE C \STLE. 




PEXSHURST PI 

To thi- westward of '1 unbridge, and in the Medway Valley, is Penshurst, 



THE WEALD OF KENT. 



477 



celebrated as the home of Sir Philip Sidney — a grand, gray old house, built at 
many periods, begun in the fourteenth century and not completed until a few 
years ago. It is a pretty English picture within a setting of wooded hills and 
silver rivers, the pattern from which Sidney drew his description of "Laconia" 
in Arcadia. The buildings, particularly their window-heads, are ornamented 
with the tracery peculiar to Kent. The great hall, the earliest of these build- 
ings, has a characteristic open-timber roof, while its minstrel-gallery, fronted 
by a wainscot screen, is ornamented with the badge of the Dudleys, the " bear 
and ragged staff." Within these halls are the family portraits of a noble 
lineage. Of Mary, daughter of Sir Henry Sidney and heiress of Sir John 
Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, Ben Jonson wrote this epitaph: 

" Underneath this sable hearse 
Lies, the subject of all verse, 
Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother. 
Death ! ere thou hast slain another 
Learned and fair and Liood as she, 
Time shall throw a dart at thee." 

Sir Philip Sidney was her brother, born at Penshurst in 1554. The estate 
came through various owners, until, in the reign of Henry II., it was granted 
to Sir William Sidney, who commanded a wing of the victorious English at 
Flodden. Sir Philip, we are told, 
would have been King ol Poland 
had not Queen Elizabeth inter- 
posed, " lest she should lose the 
jewel of her times." Algernon 
Sidney, beheaded on Tower Hill, 
was his descendant. Penshurst is 
now held by Baron de l'lsle, to 
whom it has descended through 
marriage. On the estate stands 
the quaint old Penshurst Church 
with its ivy-covered porch. The 
Eden River falls into the Medway near Penshurst, and alongside its waters is 
the well-known castellated residence which still survives from the Tudor days, 
Hever Castle, where, it is said, Anne Boleyn was born. Sir Geoffrey Bo- 
leyn, her great-grandfather, who was Lord Mayor of London in the reign 
of Henry VI., began Hever Castle, which was completed by his grandson, 
Anne's father. It was at Hever that King Henry wooed her. The house is 
a quadrangle, with high pitched roofs and gables and surrounded by a double 




PENSHURST CHURCH. 



4 ;8 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE, 




II EVER CAM 1 1 



moat, and is now a farm-house. Here they show the visitor Anne Boleyn's 
rooms, and also the chamber where her successor, Anne o( Cleves, is said to 

have died, though this is doubted. 
King Henry, however, seized the 
estate of Hever from his earlier 
wife's family, and granted it to his 
subsequently discarded consort 
after he separated from her. 
Northward of Tunbridge, and mar 
Sevenoaks, is Knole, the home of 
the family of Hon. L. S. Sackville- 
West, the present British minister 
at Washington. It is one of the 
most interesting baronial mansions 
in England, enclosed by a park five 
miles in circumference. 

Proceeding eastward towards the 
outskirts of the Weald, we come to 
Leeds Castle, once the great cen- 
tral fortress of Kent. Standing in a commanding position, it held the road 
hading to Canterbury and the coast, and it dates probably from the Norman 
Conquest. Its moat 
surrounds three isl- 
ands, from which, as 
if from the water, 
rise its walls and 
towers. This castle 
is now the residence 
of Mr. Wykeham 
Martin and contains 
many valuable an- 
tiquities. Also near 
the eastern border 
of the Weald is Ten- 
terden. famous tor 
its church -steeple, gateway of leeds castle. 

which Bishop Latimer has invested with a good story. The bishop in a ser- 
mon said that Sir Thomas More was once sent into Kent to learn the cause 
of the Goodwin Sands and the obstructions to Sandwich Haven. He sum- 




ROCHESTER AND CHATHAM. 479 



moned various persons of experience, and among others there "came in before 
him an olde man with a white head, and one that was thought to be little lesse 
than an hundereth yeares olde. When Maister More saw this aged man he 
thought it expedient to hear him say his minde in this matter, for being so 
olde a man, it was likely he knew most of any man in that presence and com- 
pany. So Maister More called this olde aged man unto him, and sayd, 'Father, 
tell me if ye can what is the cause of this great arising of the sande and 
shelfs here about this haven, the which stop it up that no shippes can arrive 
here. Ye are the oldest man that I can espie in all this companye, so that, 
if any man can tell any cause of it, ye of likelihode can say most in it, or at 
leastwise more than any man here assembled.' — 'Yea, forsooth, good master,' 
quod this olde man, ' for I am wellnigh an hundreth years olde, and no man 
here in this companye anything neare unto mine age.' — 'Well, then,' quod 
Maister More, ' how say you in this matter ? What think ye to be the cause 
of these shelfs and flattes that stop up Sandwich Haven ?' — ' Forsooth, syr,' 
quoth he, ' I am an olde man ; I think that Tenterton Steeple is the cause of 
Goodwin Sandes. For I am an olde man, syr,' quod he, 'and 1 may remember 
the building of Tenterton Steeple, and I may remember when there was no 
steeple at all there. And before that Tenterton Steeple was a-building there 
was no manner of speaking of any flattes or sandes that stopped the haven ; 
and, therefore, I thinke that Tenterton Steeple is the cause of the destroying 
and decaying of Sandwich Haven.' And even so to my purpose," says Latimer 
in conclusion, " is preaching of God's worde the cause of rebellion, as Tenter- 
ton Steeple is a cause that Sandwich Haven is decayed." Now this " olde 
aged man " had some excuse for his theory in the Kentish tradition, which says 
that the abbot of St. Augustine, who built the steeple, used for it the stones 
collected to strengthen the sea-wall of Goodwin Sands, then part of the main 
land. The next storm submerged the district, of which the Goodwins are the 
remains, and thus the steeple caused the quicksands, according to the Kentish 
theory. 

ROCHESTER AND CHATHAM. 

Proceeding down the Medway, it flows past the city of Rochester, the river 
being crowded with vessels and crossed here by a bridge with a swinging draw. 
Rochester has a fine old cathedral, rather dilapidated, and in part restored, but 
its chief attraction is the castle towering above the river, its Norman keep 
forming a tower over seventy feet square and rising one hundred feet high, its 
masonry disclosing vast strength and impressive massiveness. Cobham Hall, 
the residence of Earl Darnley, is near Rochester, standing in a nobly wooded 



4 So 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



park seven miles in circumference. Just north of Cobham Park is Gad's Hill, 
where Charles Dickens lived. Beyond Rochester the powerful modern defen- 
sive work of Fort Pitt rises over Chatham to defend the Medway entrance 

and that important dockyard. The 
chicllva bustling street about 
es long. The dockyard is one 
of the largest in England, 
and its defensive works, as 
yet incomplete, will when 
finished make it a powerful 
fortress, there being several 
outlying batteries and works 
still to complete. The (Inn 
Wharf contains a large park 
of artillery, and there are 
barracks for three thousand 
men extending along the 
river. There is also an ex- 
tensive convict-prison with 
two thousand inmates, who 
work upon the dock ex- 
tension and at making bricks 
for its construction. Chatham 
has several military and naval 
hospitals. ( )pposite thedock- 







ROI 111 - l i l. I \STLE. 

yard is Upnor Castle, used as a powder-magazine and torpedo-school. This 
castle, the original defensive work of Chatham, was bombarded by Wan Tromp 
when he came up the Medway in Charles II. 's reign — an audacity lor which 
he was afterwards punished. The suburb ol Brompton is completely enveloped 
by the forts and buildings of the post, contains barracks and hospitals for five 
thousand men, and is also the head-quarters of the Royal Engineers. 



i VNTERBURY. 

Leaving the estuary of the Medway, still farther east in Kent, in the vale of 
the Stour, is the ancient cathedral city of Canterbury, whereol Rimmer says 
it "is one of the most delightful cities in England lor an antiquary." Its cathe- 
dral is approached through the quaint narrow street ol Mercery Lane, where 
once stood the Checquers lun that was the resort of Chaucer's pilgrims. At 
the v\\A ol litis lane is the principal entrance to the cathedral close — Prior Gold- 



CANTERBURY. 



481 



smith's Gate, commonly called Christ Church Gate, built in 1517: it was for- 
merly surmounted by turrets, but these have been partly taken down. The 
arms of Becket are carved upon the gateway, and beyond it rise the gray 
towers of the vene- 
rable cathedral. On 
the east side of the 
close is Broad Street, 
where part of the old 
city-walls are still pre- 
served. This was the 
site of St. Augustine's 
monastery, and Lan- 
franc, the first arch- 
bishop after the Con- 
quest, rebuilt the ca- 
thedral church, which 
was continued by his 
successor, Anselm. It 
was in this church that 
Becket was murdered 
in 1 1 70, and " in the 
glorious choir of Con- 
rad " his corpse was 
watched by the monks 
on the following night. 
This choir was burned 
down four years later, 
but afterwards rebuilt. 
The present cathedral 
consists of work ex- 
tending from Lan- 
franc's time until that 
of Prior Goldstone in 
the fifteenth century, 
thus exhibiting speci- 
mens of all the schools of Gothic architecture. Canterbury Cathedral is 
among the largest churches in England, being five hundred and twenty-two 
feet long, and its principal entrance is by the south porch. The nave is strik- 
ing, and in the choir the eye is immediately attracted by its great length, one 

61 




CANTERBURY. 



482 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



hundred and eighty feet — the longest in the kingdom — and by the singular 
bend with which the walls at the eastern end approach each other. The archi- 
tecture is antique, and the interior produces an impression of great solemnity. 
The north-western transept is known as the Transept of the Martyrdom, where 
Becket was slain just after Christmas by four knights in 1 170. A small square 
piece cut out of one of the flagstones marks the spot, and there still remain 
the door leading from the cloisters by which Becket and the knights entered 
the cathedral, and the part of the wall in front of which the assassinated arch- 
bishop fell. There is an attractive window in this transept, the gift of Edward 
IV. The cathedral is full of monuments, and in Trinity Chapel, behind the 
choir, where Becket had sung his first mass when installed as archbishop, was 
the location chosen for his shrine, but it long ago disappeared. Here is also 
the monument of Edward the Black Prince, with his effigy in brass, and sus- 
pended above it his helmet, shield, sword-scabbard, and gauntlets. Henry IV 
is also buried in Canterbury, with his second wife, loan ot Navarre; Cardinal 
Pole is entombed here; and in the south-western transept is the singular tomb 
of Langton, archbishop in the days of Magna Charta, the stone coffin so placed 
that the head alone appears through the wall. In the crypt was Becket's tomb, 
which remained there until 1220, and at it occurred the penance and scourging 
of Henry II. The cathedral has two fine western towers, the northern one, 
however, not having been finished until recently. The central tower, known 
as " Bell Harry," rises two hundred and thirty-five feet, and is a magnificent 
example of Perpendicular Gothic. In the close are interesting remains of St. 
Augustine's Monastery, including its fine entrance-gate and guest-hall, now 
part ot St. Augustine's College, one of the most elaborate modern structures 
in Canterbury. The monastery had been a brewery, but was bought in 1844 
by Mr. Beresford Hope and devoted to its present noble object. On the hill 
above St. Augustine, mounted by the Longport road, is the "mother church 
of England," St. Martin's, which had been a British Christian chapel before 
the Saxons came into the island, and was made over to Augustine. The pres- 
ent building occupies the site of the one he erected. 

Close to the old city-wall is Canterbury Castle, its venerable Norman keep 
being now used as the town gasworks. There are many old houses in Can- 
terbury, and its history has been traced back twenty-eight hundred years. It 
was the Roman colony of Durovernum. Among its quaint houses is the 
Falstaff Inn, still a comfortable and popular hostelrie, having a sign-board sup- 
ported by iron framework projecting far over the street. Adjoining is the 
West Gate — the only one remaining of the six ancient barriers of the city 
built by Archbishop Sudbury, who was killed in 1381 by Wat Tyler's rebels. 



THE CINQUE PORTS. 



48: 



I his gate stands on the road from London to Dover, and guards the 
bridge over a little branch of the Stour; the foundations of the lofty flanking 
round towers arc in the river-bed. The gate-house was long used as a city 
prison. It was in this weird old city that Chaucer located many of his Can- 
terbury Tales, that give such an insight into the customs of his time. The 
landlord ot the Tabard Inn in Southwark, whose guests were of all ranks, 
proposed a journey to Canterbury 
after dinner, he to adjudge the best 
story any of them told on the road. 
Chaucer's characters were all clev- 
erly drawn and lifelike, while his 
innkeeper was a man of evidently 
high " social status," and, as he him- 
self said, " wise ami well ytaught." 

The Stour (lows on to the sea, 
whose generally low shores are 
not far away, with the Isle of 
Thanet to the northward and Lon- 
don's watering-place of Ramsgate 
cm its outer verge. Here is Pee- 
well Bay, noted lor its shrimps, and 
a short distance westward from 
Ramsgate is Osengal Hill, from 
which there is a fine view, the 
summit being covered by the graves 
of the first Saxon settlers of Thanet. 
To the northward a short distance 
is the sister watering-place of Mar- 
gate, near the; north eastern extremity of Thanet and ninety miles from Lon- 
don : its pier is nine hundred feet long. On the extremity of Thanet, about 
three miles from Margate, is the great lighthouse of the North Foreland. 




FALSTAFF INN', CANTERBURY 



THE CINQUE PORTS. 

Off the mouth of the Stour ami the Goodwin Sands, and thence down the 
coast to Dover, is the narrowest part of the strait between England and 
France. This is a coast, therefore, that needed delence from the earliest 
times, and the cliff-castles and earthworks still remaining show how well it 
was watched. The Romans carefully fortified tin- entire line ot cliffs from the 
Goodwin Sands to Beachy Head beyond Hastings. There were nine fort- 



484 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 

resses along- the coast, which in later times were placed under control of a high 
official known as the "Count of the Saxon Shore," whose duty was to protect 
this part of England against the piratical attacks of the Northern sea-rovers. 
These fortresses commanded the chief harbors and landing-places, and they 
marked the position of the famous Cinque Ports, whose fleet was the germ of 
the British navy. They were not thus named until after the Norman Conquest, 
when John de Fiennes appeared as the first warden. The Cinque Ports of 
later English history were Sandwich, Dover, Hythe, Romney, and Hastings, 
each of which had its minor ports or "limbs," such as Deal, Walmer, Folke- 
stone, Rye, Winchelsea, and Pevensey, that paid tribute to the head port and 
enjoved part of its franchises. The duty ot the Cinque Ports was to furnish 
fifty-seven ships whenever the king needed them, and he supplied part ot the 
force to man them. In return the ports were given great Ireedom and priv- 
ileges; their people were known as "barons," were represented in Parliament, 
and at every coronation bore the canopy over the sovereign, carrying it on 
silver staves having small silver bells attached. The canopy was usually after- 
wards presented to Becket's shrine at Canterbury, and its bearers alter the 
coronation dined in Westminster Hall at the king's right hand. But the glory 
of these redoubtable Cinque Ports has departed. Dover is the only one re- 
maining in active service ; Sandwich, Hythe. and Romney are no longer ports 
at all ; while Hastings is in little better condition. The tides have gradually 
tilled their shallow harbors with silt. Of the " limbs," or lesser ports, two, 
Winchelsea and Pevensey. are now actually inland towns, the sea having com- 
pletely retired from them. Such has also been the fate of Sandwich, which in 
the time of Canute was described as the most famous harbor of England. The 
coast has greatly changed, the shallow bays beyond the old shore-line, which is 
still visible, being raised into green meadows. In this way the water-course 
that made Thanet an island has been closed. 

SAND W I C H . 

This silting up began at a remote era, closing one port after another, and 
Sandwich rose upon their decline. It is the most ancient of the Cinque Ports, 
and existed as a great harbor until about the year 1500, when it too began to 
silt up. In a century it was quite closed, traffic had passed away, ami the town 
had assumed the fossilized appearance which is now chiefly remarked about it. 
Sandwich lingers as it existed in the Plantagenet days, time having mould- 
ered it into quaint condition. Trees grow from the tops of the old walls, and 
also intrude upon the deep ditch with its round towers at the angles. Large 
open spaces, gardens, and orchards lie between the houses within the walls 



SANDWICH. 



485 



of the city. Going through the old gateway leading to the bridge crossing the 
Stour, a little church is found, with its roof tinted with yellowish lichens, and a 
bunch of houses below it covered with red, time-worn tiles, and the still and 
sleepy river near by. This was the very gate ot that busy harbor which four 
centuries ago was the greatest in England and the resort of ships from all 
parts ot the then known world. Its customs dues yielded $100,000 annually 
at the small rates imposed, and the great change that has been wrought can be 
imagined, as the visitor looks out over the once famous harbor to find it a mass 




THE IiARHK'AN. SANDWICH. 



of green meadows with venerable trees growing here anc 



there. Sandwich 

has no main street, its winding, narrow and irregular passage-ways being left 
apparently to chance to seek out their routes, while a mass of houses is crushed 
together within the ancient walls, with church-towers as the only landmarks. 
These churches give the best testimony to the former wealth and importance 
of the town, the oldest being that ot St. Clement, who was the patron of the 
seafarers. This church is rather large, with a central tower, while the pave- 
ment contains many memorials ot the rich Sandwich merchants in times long 
agone. St. Peter's Church remains only as a fragment; its tower has fallen 
and destroyed the south aisle. It contains a beautiful tomb erected to one of 
the former wardens of the Cinque Ports. The old code of laws of Sandwich, 
which still survives, shows close pattern after the Baltic towns of the Hanseatic 
League. Female criminals were drowned in the Guestling Brook, which falls 
into the Stour; others were buried alive in the "thief duns" near that stream. 
Close by the old water-gate of Sandwich is the Barbican, and from it a short 
view across the marshes discloses the ancient Roman town ot Rutupiae and the 



4.S6 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



closed-up port of Ebbslleet, where Hengist and Horsa are said to have first 
landed. Here was the oyster-ground of the Romans, who loved the bivalves as 
well as their successors of to-day. Of the walls of the Roman town there still 
remain extensive traces, disclosing solid masonry of great thickness, composed 
of layers of rough boulders encased externally with regular courses of squared 
Portland stone. There are square towers at intervals along these walls, with 
loopholed apartments for the sentinels. Vast numbers of Roman coins have 
been found in and around this ancient city, over one hundred and forty thou- 
sand, it is said, having come to light, belonging to the decade between 287 
and 297, when Britain was an independent Roman island. Passing southward 
along the coast, we skirt the natural harbor of the Downs, a haven of refuge 
embracing about twenty square miles of safe anchorage, and bounded on the 
east by the treacherous Goodwin Sands, where Shakespeare tells us " the car- 
case of many a tall ship lies buried." It is possible at low water to visit and 
walk over portions of these shoals. They are cpiicksands of such character 
that if a ship strikes upon them she will in a few days be completely swallowed 
up. Modern precautions, however, have rendered them less formidable than 
iormerly. The great storm of 1 703, that destroyed the Eddystone Lighthouse, 
wrecked thirteen war-ships on the Goodwins, nearly all their crews perishing. 
As we look out over them from the low shores at Deal and Walmer below 
Sandwich, or the chalk-cliffs of Dover beyond, a fringe of breakers marks their 
line, while nearer the coast merchant-ships at anchor usually crowd the Downs. 
In Walmer Castle was the official residence of the lord warden of the Cinque 
Ports, an office that is soon to be abolished, and which many famous men have 
held. Here lived Pitt, and here died the Duke of Wellington, closing his great 
career. 

DOVER. 

Beyond, the coast rises up from the low sandy level, and rounding the South 
Foreland, on which is a fine electric lighthouse of modern construction, we 
come to the chalk-cliffs, on top of which are the dark towers of Dover Castle, 
from whose battlements the road descends to the town along the water's edge 
and in the valley of the little stream that gives the place its name — the Dour, 
which the Celts called the Dwr or "water," and the Romans the Dubrae. The 
great keep of Dover dates from William Rufus's reign, and is one of the many 
badges left in England of the Norman Conquest. There are earthworks at 
Dover, however, of much earlier origin, built for protection by the Celts and 
Romans, and forming part of the chain that guarded this celebrated coast, of 
which Dover, being at the narrowest part of the strait, was considered the key. 
But no such Norman castle rises elsewhere on these shores. "It was built bv 



do}-/-:r. 



487 




THE THAROS, DOVER CASTLE. 



* 



evil spirits," writes a Bohemian traveller in the fifteenth century, "and is so 
strong that in no other part of Christendom can anything be found like it." 
The northern turret on the keep rises tour hundred 
and sixty-eight feet above the sea at the base of 
the hill, and from it can be had a complete observa- 
tion of both the English and French coasts for many 
miles. Within the castle is the ancient Pharos, or 
watch-tower, a Roman work. Over upon the op- 
posite side of the harbor is Shakespeare's Cliff, 

" whose high and bending head 

Looks fearfully on the confined deep." 

There is no more impressive view in England 
than that from the Castle Hill of Dover, with the 
green fields and white chalk headlands stretching 
far away on either hand fringed by the breakers, 
the hills and harbors faintly seen across the strait in France, and the busy town 
of Dover lying at the foot of the cliff. This is half watering-place and half 
port of transit to the opposite coast. Its harbor is almost entirely artificial, 
and there has been much difficulty in keeping it open. That there is any port 
there now at all is due mainly to Raleigh's advice, and there is at present a 

well-protected harbor of refuge, with 
a fine pier extending nearly a half 
mile into the sea, with a lort at the 
outer end. From the top of the hill 
there looks down upon this pier the 
Saluting-Battery Gate of the castle, 
within which is kept that curious 
specimen of ancient gunnery known 
as "Queen Elizabeth's Pocket Pistol.'' 
Farther down the coastis the ancient 
" limb " of Dover, which has grown 
into the rival port of Folkestone. This modern port, created to aid the neces- 
sities of travel across the Channel, stands at the north-eastern corner of the 
Romney Marsh, a district that has been raised out of the sea and is steadily 
increasing in front of the older coast line, shown by a range of hills stretching 
westward from Folkestone. This marsh has made the sea retreat fully three 
miles from Hythe, whose name signifies "the harbor," though it is now an 
inland village, with a big church dedicated to St. Leonard, the deliverer of 




SAI.UTIN'f? BATTERY. 






ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



captives, who was always much reverenced in the Cinque Ports, their warlike 
sailors being frequently taken prisoner. In a crypt under its chancel is a large 
collection of skulls and bones, many of them bearing weapon scars and cuts, 
showing them to be relics of the war-. Beyond Hythe the Rother originally 
flowed into the Channel, but a great storm in the reign of Edward I. silted up 
its outlet, and the river changed its course over towards Rye. so as to avoid 
the Cinque port of Romney that was established on the western edge ot the 
marshes to which it gave the name. Romnej is now simply a village without 
any harbor, and of the five churches it formerly had, only the church of St. 
Nicholas remains as a landmark among the fens that have grown up around 
it. an almost treeless plain intersected by dykes and ditches. 



RYE AND WINCH ELSE A. 
The unpicturesque coast is thrust out into the sea to the point at Dunge- 
ness where the lighthouse stands a beacon in a region full of peril to the 

navigator ; and then the coast a^ain 
recedes to the cove wherein is tound 
the quaint old town of Rye. former- 
lv an important " limb "of the Cinque 
port of Hastings. It has about the 
narrowest and crookeciest streets in 
England, and the sea is two miles 
away from the line ot steep and 
broken rock along which " Old 
Rye " stretches. The ancient 
houses, however, have a sort of 
harbor, formed by the junction of 
the three rivers, the Rother, Brede. 
and Tillingham. and thus Rye sup- 
ports quite a fleet of fishing-craft. 
Thackeray has completely repro- 
duced in Denis Duval the ancient 
character of this place, with its 
smuggling atmosphere varied with 
French touches given by the neigh- 
borhood of the Continent. Rye 
stands on one side of a marshy lowland, and Winchelsea about three miles 
distant on the other side. The original Winchelsea. we are told, was on lower 
ground, and. after frequent floodings. was Anally destroyed by an inundation 




HASTINGS AND PEVENSEY. 489 



in 1287. King Edward I. founded the new town upon the hill above. It 
enjoyed a lucrative trade until the fifteenth century, when, like most of the 
others, its prosperity was blighted by the sea's retiring. The harbor then 
became useless, the inhabitants left, the houses gradually disappeared, and, 
the historian says, the more massive buildings remaining " have a strangely 
spectral character, like owls seen by daylight.'' Three old gates remain, in- 
cluding the Strand Gate, where King Edward nearly lost his life soon after the 
town was built. It appears that the horse on which he was riding, frightened 
by a windmill, leaped over the town-wall, and all gave: up the king for dead. 
Luckily, however, he kept his saddle, and the horse, after slipping some dis- 
tance down the incline, was checked, and Edward rode safely back through the 
gate. There is a fine church in Winchelsea — St. Thomas of Canterbury — 
within which are the tombs of Gervase Alard and his grandson Stephen. They 
were the most noted sailors of their time, and Gervase in 1300 was admiral of 
the fleet of the Cinque Ports, his grandson Stephen appearing as admiral in 
1324. These were the earliest admirals known in England, the title, derived 
from the Arabic amir, having been imported from Sicily. Gervase was paid 
two shillings a day. At the house in Winchelsea called the " Friars " lived the 
noted highwaymen George and Joseph Weston, who during the last century 
plundered in all directions, and then atoned for it by the exercise of extensive 
charity in that town : one of them actually became a churchwarden. 

HASTINGS AND PEVENSEY. 
The cliffs come out to the edge of the sea at Winchelsea, and it is a pleas- 
ant walk along them to Hastings, with its ruined castle, the last of the Cinque 
Ports. This was never as important a port as the others, but the neighboring- 
Sussex forests made it a convenient place for shipbuilding. The castle ruins 
are the only antiques at Hastings, which has been gradually transformed into a 
modern watering-place in a pretty situation. Its eastern end, however, has 
undergone little transition, and is still filled with the old-fashioned black-timber 
houses of the fishermen. The battle of Hastings, whereby William the Con- 
queror planted his standard on English soil, was fought about seven miles 
inland. His ships debarked their troops all along this coast, while St. Valery 
harbor in France, from which he sailed, is visible in clear weather across the 
Channel. William himself landed at Pevensey, farther westward, where there 
is an old fortress of Roman origin located in the walls of the ancient British- 
Roman town that the heathen Saxons had long before attacked, massacring the 
entire population. Pevensey still presents within these walls the Norman castle 
of the Eagle Honour, named from the powerful house of Aquila once possessing 



49° 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



it. The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the landing of William at Pevensey, which 
was a "limb" of Hastings. Its Roman name was Anderida, the walls enclos- 
ing an irregular oval, the castle within being a pentagon, with towers at the 
angles. Beyond it the Sussex coast juts out at the bold white chalk prom- 
ontory of Beachy Head. 

A short distance inland from Pevensey is the great Sussex cattle-market at 

Hailsham, where the old 
Michelham Priory is used 
as a farm-house and its 
crypt as a dairy. Not far 
away is Hurstmonceux 
Castle, a relic of the times 
of Henry VI. , and built 
entirely of brick, being 
probably the largest Eng- 
lish structure of that ma- 
terial constructed since 
the Roman epoch. Only 
the shell of the castle re- 
mains, an interesting and 
picturesque specimen of 
the half fortress, half man- 
sion of the latter days of 
feudalism. The main gate- 
way on the southern front 
has Hanking towers over 
eighty feet high, sur- 
mounted by watch-turrets 
from which the sea is vis- 
ible. The walls are mag- 
nificently overgrown with 
ivy, contrasting beautifully 
with the red brick. Great 
trunks of ivy grow up 
from the dining-room, and all the inner courts are carpeted with green turf, 
with hazel-bushes appearing here and there among the ruined walls. A fine 
row of old chestnuts stands beyond the moat, and from the towers are distant 
views of Beachy Head, its white chalk-cliffs making one of the most prominent 
landmarks of the southern coast. 




HURSTMONCEUX CASTLE. 



BRIGHTON. 49 1 



BRIGHTON. 

Westward of Beachy Head is the noted watering-place of this southern coast, 
Brighton, the favorite resort of the Londoners, it being but fifty-one miles south 
of the metropolis. This was scarcely known as a fashionable resort until about 
1780, when George IV., then the Prince of Wales, became its patron. Taken 
altogether, its lar^e size, fine building's, excellent situation, and elaborate 
decorations make Brighton probably the greatest sea-coast watering-place in 
Europe. It stretches for over three miles along the Channel upon a rather 
low shore, though in some places the cliffs rise considerably above the beach. 
Almost the entire sea-front, especially to the eastward, is protected by a strong 
sea-wall of an average height of sixty feet and twenty-three feet thick at the 
base. This wall cost $500,000 to build, and it supports a succession of terraces 
available for promenade and roadway. In front the surf rolls in upon a rather 
steep pebbly beach, upon which are the bathing-machines and boats. Along 
the b2ach, and behind the sea-wall, Brighton has a grand drive, the Marine- 
Parade, sixty feet wide, extending for three miles along the shore and in front 
of the buildings, with broad promenades on the sea-side ornamented with 
lawns and gardens, and on the other side a succession of houses of such grand 
construction as to resemble rows of palaces, built of the cream-colored Portland 
stone. The houses of the town extend far back on the hillsides and into the 
valleys, and the permanent population of 130.000 is largely augmented during 
the height of the season — October, November, and December. Enormous sums 
have been expended upon the decoration of this great resort, and its Marine 
Parade, when fashion goes there in the autumn, presents a grand scene. From 
this parade two great piers extend out into the water, and are used for prome- 
nades, being, like the entire city front, brilliantly illuminated at night. The 
eastern one is the Chain Pier, built in 1823 at a cost of $150,000, and extend- 
ing eleven hundred and thirty-six feet into the sea. The West Pier, constructed 
about fifteen years ago, is somewhat broader, and stretches out eleven hun- 
dred and fifteen feet. Each of the piers expands into a wide platform at the 
outer end, that of the West Pier being one hundred and forty feet wide, and 
here bands play and there are brilliant illuminations. Both piers are of great 
strength, and only four cents admission is charged to them. Prince George 
built at Brighton a royal pavilion in imitation of the pagodas of the Indies, 
embosomed in trees and surrounded by gardens. This was originally the 
royal residence, but in 1850 the city bought it for $265,000 as a public assem- 
bly-room. The great attraction of Brighton, however, is the aquarium, the 
largest in the world, opened in 1872. It is constructed in front of the Parade, 



492 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



and, sunken below its level, stretches some fourteen hundred feet along the 
shore, and is one hundred feet wide, being surmounted by gardens and foot- 
walks. It is set at this low level to facilitate the movement of the sea-water, 
and its design is to represent the fishes and marine animals as nearly as pos- 
sible in their native haunts and habits, to do which, and not startle the fish, the 
visitors go through darkened passages, and are thus concealed from them, all 
the light coming in by refraction through the water. Their actions are thus 
natural, and they move about with perfect freedom, some of the tanks being 
of enormous size. Here swim schools of herring, mackerel, and porpoises as 
they do out at sea, the octopus gyrates his arms, and almost every fish that 
is known to the waters of that temperature is exhibited in thoroughly natural 
action. The tanks have been prepared most elaborately. The porpoises and 
larger fish have a range of at least one hundred feet, and rocks, savannahs, 
and everything else they are accustomed to are reproduced. The visitors 
walk through vaulted passages artistically decorated, and there is music to 
gladden the ear. This aquarium also shows the processes of fish-hatching, 
and has greatly increased the world's stock of knowledge as to fish-habits. 
The tanks hold five hundred thousand gallons of fresh and salt water. 

Back of Brighton are the famous South Downs, the chalk-hills of Sussex, 
which stretch over fifty miles parallel to the coast, and have a breadth of four 
or five miles, while they rise to an average height of five hundred feet, their 
highest point being Ditchling Beacon, north of Brighton, rising eight hundred 
and fifty-eight feet. They disclose picturesque scenery, and the railways irom 
London wind through their valleys and dart into the tunnels under their hills, 
whose tops disclose the gyrating sails of an army of windmills, while over 
their slopes roam the flocks of well-tended sheep that ultimately become the 
the much-prized South Down mutton. The chalk-clifis bordering the Downs 
slope to the sea, and in front are numerous little towns, for the whole coast is 
dotted with watering-places. A few miles east of Brighton is the port of New 
Haven on a much-travelled route across the Channel to Dieppe. 

WISTON PARK. 
To the westward of Brighton and in the South Downs is the antique village 
of Steyning, near which is Rev. John Goring's home at Wiston Manor, an 
Elizabethan mansion of much historical interest and commanding views of 
extreme beauty. This is one of the most attractive places in the South Downs, 
a grand park with noble trees, herds of deer wandering over the grass, and 
the great ring of trees on top of Chanctonbury Hill, planted in 1760. Charles 
Goring, the father of the present owner, planted these trees in his early life, 



ARUNDEL CASTLE. 493 



and sixty-eight years afterwards, in 1S2S, he then being eighty-five years old, 
addressed these lines to the hill : 

" How oft around thy King, sweet Hill, a boy I used to play, 
And form my plans to plant thy top on some auspicious day! 
How oft among thy broken turf with what delight I trod! 
With what delight 1 placed those twigs beneath thy maiden sod ! 
And then an almost hopeless wish would creep within my breast: 
'Oh, could I live to see thy top in all its beauty dressed!' 
That time's arrived; I've had my wish, and lived to eighty-five; 
I'll thank my God, who gave such grace, as long as e'er I live; 
Still when the morning sun in spring, whilst I enjoy my sight, 
Shall gild thy new clothed Beach and sides, 111 view thee with delight." 

The house originally belonged to Earl Godwine, and has had a strange history. 
One of its lords was starved to death at Windsor by King John ; Llewellyn 
murdered another at a banquet; a third fell from his horse and was killed. 
Later, it belonged to the Shirleys, one of whom married a Persian princess ; it 
has been held by the Gorings for a long period. This interesting old mansion 
has a venerable church adjoining it, surmounted by an ivy-clad tower. Chanc- 
tonbury Hill rises eight hundred and fourteen feet, and its ring of trees, which 
can be seen for many miles, is planted on a circular mound surrounded by a 
trench, an ancient fortification. From it there is a grand view over Surrey and 
Sussex and to the sea beyond — a view stretching from Windsor Castle to 
Portsmouth, a panorama of rural beauty that cannot be excelled. 

ARUNDEL CASTLE. 

The little river Arun flows from the South Downs into the sea, and standing 
upon its banks is Arundel Castle, which gives the title of earl to the unfortunate 
infant son and heir of the Duke of Norfolk, whose blindness shows that even 
the greatest wealth and highest rank do not command all things in this world. 
A village of two steep streets mounts up the hill from the river-bank to the 
castle, which has unusual interest from its striking position and the long line 
of its noble owners — the Fitzalans and Howards. The extensive ramparts sur- 
round a ponderous keep and there are fine views in all directions. This is a 
favorite home of the Duke of Norfolk, and is surrounded by an extensive 
park. The tombs of his ancestors are in the old parish church of St. Nich- 
olas, built in the fourteenth century, alongside which the duke has recently 
constructed a magnificent Roman Catholic church in Decorated Gothic at a 
cost of $500,000. The architect of this church was Mr. Hansom, who invented 
for the benefit of London the Hansom cab. Westward of Arundel is Chiches- 



494 



EXGLA.XD, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




ARUNDEl CAST1 v.. 

ter, distinguished for its cathedral and cross, the ancient Regnum oi the Ro- 
mans. The cathedral, recently restored, is peculiar from having five aisles 

with a long and narrow 
choir. Here is buried Rich- 
ard Fitzalan, Earl of Arun- 
del in the fourteenth cen- 
tury. This cathedral has 
a consistory court over the 
southern porch, reached by 
a spiral staircase, from which 
a sliding door opens into 
the Lollards' Dungeon. It 
has a detached campanile 
or bell-tower rising on the 
north-western side, the only 
example in England ol 
such an attachment to a 
cathedral. The Chichester 




RUINS OK COWDRAY. 



market-cross, standing at the intersection of four streets in the centre of the 
town, is four hundred years old. In front of Chichester, but nine miles away, 



SELRORNE. 



495 



the low peninsula of Selsey Bill projects into the sea and is the resort oi innu- 
merable wild-fowl. Three miles out of town is Goodwood, where the races are 
held. Goodwood is the seat of the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, who has 
a fine park, and a valuable picture-gallery particularly rich in historical por- 
traits. At Bigner, twelve miles from Chichester over the chalk-downs, are 
the remains of an extensive Roman villa, the buildings and pavements having 
been exhumed for a space of six hundred by three hundred and titty feet. 
The Rother, a tributary of the Arun, flows down from Midhurst, where are 
the ruins of Cowdray, an ancient Tudor stronghold that was burned in 1793, 
its walls being now finely overgrown with ivy. Dunford House, near Mid- 
hurst, was the estate presented to Richard Cobden by the "Anti-Corn I. aw 
League." 

SELBORNE. 

Crossing from Midhurst over the border into Hampshire, the village of Sel- 
borne is reached, one of the smallest but best known places in England from 
the care and minuteness with which Rev. Gilbert White has described it in his 
Natural History 
of Sclbornc. It is 
a short distance 
south-east of 
Alton and about 
fifty miles south- 
west of London, 
while beyond the 
village the chalk- 
hills rise to a 
height of three 
hundred feet, 
having a long 
hanging wood on 
the brow, known 
as the Hanger, 
made up mainly 

of beech trees. The village is a single straggling street three-quarters of a mile 
in length, in a sheltered valley and running parallel with the Hanger. At each 
end of Selborne there rises a small rivulet, the one to the south becoming a 
branch of the Arun and flowing into the Channel, while the other is a branch ot 
the Wey, which falls into the Thames. This is the pleasant little place, located in 
a broad parish, that Gilbert White has made famous, writing of everything con- 




GILBERT WHITE'S HOUSE. 



496 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 




- 




SUN-DIAL IN GILBERT WHITES GARDEN. 



cerning it, but more especially of its natural history and peculiarities of soil, 

its trees, fruits, and animal life. He was born at Selborne in 1720, and died 

there in 1793, in his seventy-third year. He 
was the father of English natural history, for 
much of what he wrote was equally applicable 
to other parts of the kingdom. His modest 
house, now overgrown with ivy, is one of the 
most interesting buildings in the village, and 
in it they still keep his study about as he left 
it, with the close-fronted bookcase protected 
by brass wire-netting, to which hangs his ther- 
mometer just where he originally placed it. 
The house has been little if any altered since 
he was carried to his last resting-place. He 
is described by those who knew him as "a 
little thin, prim, upright man," a quiet, unas- 
suming, but very observing country parson, 

who occupied his time in watching and recording the habits of his parishioners, 

quadruped as well as feathered. At the end of the garden is still kept his 

sun-dial, the 

lawn arou n d 

which is one of 

the softest and 

most perfect 

grass carpets in 

England. 

The pleasant 

little church 

over w h i c h 

White presided 

is as modest and 

almostasattract- 

ive as his house. 

It was dedicated 

to the Virgin 

Mary, and mea- 
sures fifty- four SELBORNE CHURCH, FROM THE ALTON ROAD. 

by forty-seven feet, being almost as broad as it is long, consisting of three 
aisles, and making no pretensions, he says, to antiquity. It was built in Henry 







SELBORNE. 



497 



YII.'s reign, is perfectly plain and unadorned, and without painted glass, carved 
work, sculpture, or tracery. Within it, however, are low, squat, thick pillars 
supporting the roof, which he thinks are Saxon and upheld the roof of a for- 
mer church, which, falling into decay, was rebuilt on these massive props be- 
cause their strength had preserved them from the injuries of time. They 
support blunt Gothic arches. He writes that he remembers when the beams 
of the middle aisle were hung with garlands in honor of young women of the 
parish who died virgins. Within the chancel is his memorial on the wall, and 
he rests in an unassuming grave in the churchyard. The belfry is a square 
embattled tower forty-five feet high, built at the western end, and he tells 
pleasantly how the three old bells were cast into four in 1735, and a parish- 
ioner added a fifth one at his own expense, marking its arrival by a high fes- 
tival in the village, " rendered more 
joyous by an order from the donor 
that the treble bell should be fixed 
bottom upward in the ground and 
filled with punch, of which all pres- 
ent were permitted to partake." The 
porch of the church to the southward 
is modern and shelters a fine Gothic 
doorway, whose folding doors are 
evidently of ancient construction. 
The vicarage stands alongside to the 
westward, an old Elizabethan house. 
Among the singular things in Sel- 
borne to which White calls attention 
are two rocky hollow lanes, one ot 
which leads to Alton. These roads 
have, by the traffic of ages and the 
running of water, been worn down 
through the first stratum of freestone 
and partly through the second, so 




Kim KV LANE LEADING TO ALTON. 



that the)- look more like water-courses than roads. In many places they have 
thus been sunken as much as eighteen feet beneath the level of the fields 
alongside, so that torrents rush along them in rainy weather, with miniature 
cascades on either hand that are frozen into icicles in winter. These lanes, 
thus rugged and gloomy, affright the timid, but, gladly writes our author, they 
"delight the naturalist with their various botany." The old mill at Selborne, 
with its dilapidated windsails, presents a picturesque appearance, and up on 
0:) 



498 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



the chalk-hills, where there is a far-away view over the pleasant vale beyond, 
is the Wishing Stone, erected on a little mound among the trees. All these 
things attracted our author's close attention, and as his parish was over thirty 
miles in circumference, as may be supposed his investigations covered a good 
deal of -round. His work is chiefly written in the form of a series of letters 
to friends, and he occasionally digresses over the border into the neighboring 

parishes to speak of their pe- 
culiarities or attractions. They 
all had in his day little churches, 
and the parish church of Great- 
ham, not far from Selborne, is a 
specimen of the antique con- 
struction of the diminutive chap- 
els that his ancestors handed 
down to their children for places 
of worship, each surrounded by 




its setting 



of 



ancient grave- 



stones. The History of Selborne 
shows how the country parson in 
the olden time, whose flock was 
small, parish isolated, and vis- 
itors few, amused himself; but 
he has left an enduring monu- 
ment that grows the more val- 
uable as the years advance. In 
fact, it is a text-book of natural 
history ; and so complete have 
been his observations that he 
the wishing stone. not only describes all the plants 

and animals, birds, rocks, soils, and buildings, but he also has space to devote 
to the cats of Selborne, and to tell how they prowl in the roadway and mount 
the tiled rools to capture the chimney swallows. How he loved his home is 
shown in the poem with which his work begins. We quote the opening stanza, 
and also some other characteristic portions of this ode, which describes the 
attractions of Selborne in the last century: 

" See Selborne spreads her boldest beauties round, 
The varied valley, and the mountain ground 
Wildly majestic: what i*, all the pride 
Of flats with loads of ornament supplied? 



]\-J.\CJ/KSTER. 



499 



Unpleasing, tasteless, impotent expense, 
Compared with Nature's rude magnificence. 

Oft on some evening, sunny, soft, and still, 
The Muse shall hand thee to the beech-grown hill, 
To spend in tea the cool, refreshful hour, 
Where nods in air the pensile, nest-like bower; 
Or where the Hermit hangs his straw-clad cell, 
Emerging gently from the leafy dell : 
Romantic spot ! from whence in prospect lies 
Whate'er of landscape charms our feasting eyes; 
The pointed spire, the hall, the pasture-plain, 
The russet fallow, and the golden grain ; 
The breezy lake that sheds a gleaming light, 
Till all the fading picture fails the sight. . . . 

Now climb the steep, drop now your eye below, 
Where round the verdurous village orchards blow; 
There, like a picture, lies my lowly seat, 
A rural, sheltered, unobserved retreat. 

Me far above the rest, Selbornian scenes, 
The pendant forest and the mountain-greens, 
Strike with delight : . . . There spreads the distant view 
That gradual fades, till bimk in misty blue." 




(IKEATHAM CHURCH. 



WINCHESTER. 

About sixteen miles south-west of Selborne is the chief city of Hampshire 
and one of the great historical cities of the realm — Winchester — built on the 
side of a chalk-hill rising from the valley of the Itchen, a stream that was 
Izaak Walton's favorite fishing-ground. This was the Roman Venta Belgarum, 
and was made an episcopal see in the seventh century. Nothing remains of 
the earlier cathedral, which was replaced by the present structure, begun in 
the eleventh century, but not finished until the fifteenth. Winchester Cathe- 
dral is five hundred and sixty feet long, and its nave is in the highest de- 
gree impressive, being the longest in England, extending two hundred and 
sixty-five feet. The western front has recently been restored. Within the 
cathedral are many noted tombs, including that of William Rufus, and above 
the altar is West's painting of the " Raising of Lazarus." In the presby- 
tery are six mortuary chests containing the remains of kings and bishops of 
the ancient Saxon kingdom of Wessex. St. Swithin's shrine was the treasure 
of Winchester: he was bishop in the ninth century and the especial patron of 
the city and cathedral. Originally interred in the churchyard, his remains were 
removed to the golden shrine given by King Edgar, though tradition says this 
was delayed by forty days of rain, which is the foundation of the popular belief 



ioo 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



in the continuance of wet weather after St. Swithin's I >ay, July 15. In the Lady 
Chapel, Queen Mary was married to Philip of Spain in 1554, and the chair on 
which she sat is still preserved there. The cathedral close is extremely pic- 
turesque, surrounded by houses of considerable antiquity. Among the prel- 
ates of Winchester were William of Wykeham and Cardinal Beaufort: the 
former founded St. Mary's College there in the fourteenth century — a fine 
structure with the picturesque ruins of the old palace of the bishops, Wol- 
vesey Castle, near by; the latter, in the fifteenth century, built Cardinal Beau- 
fort's Tower and Gateway in the southern suburbs, on the Southampton road, 
when he revived the foundation of St. Cross. This noble gateway, when ap- 
proached from the city, is seen through the foliage, with a background of 
quaint high chimneys, church, and green leaves. The river Itchen flows along- 
side the road, half hidden among the trees. The St. Cross Hospital, with the 
thirteen brethren still living there in their black gowns and silver crosses, gives 
a vivid picture of ancient England. Adjoining the gateway on the left hand is 

tlie brewery, formerly known 
as the" Hundred Men's I tall," 
in cause a hundred of the 
poorest men in Winchester 
were daily entertained there 
at dinner, and, as the repast 
was provided on a bountiful 
scale, the guests always had 
ample provisions to carrv 
home to their families. The 
tower and surrounding build- 
ings are excellent examples 
of the domestic architecture 
oi the fifteenth century. In 
this hospital the custom still 
prevails of giving the way- 
farer a horn of ale and dole 
of bread, the ale being brewed 
on the premises and of the 
same kind made there cen- 

CAKDINAL BEAUFORT'S GATF. AND ANCIENT BREWERY. tlirieS agO. TllC old West 

Gate ot Winchester, the only survivor of the city's four gates, is a well-pre- 
served specimen of the military architecture of the time of Henry III. Win- 
chester Castle was originally built by William the Norman, and continued a 




THE NEW FOREST. 501 



residence of the kings until Henry III., but of it little remains beyond the hall 
and some subterranean fragments. Here hangs on the wall what is said to 
be the top of King Arthur's round table. There is a beautiful cross in Win- 
chester, recently restored, and originally erected on the High Street by Car- 
dinal Beaufort, who seems to have spent much of his vast and ill-gotten wealth 
in splendid architectural works. Shakespeare introduces him in Henry VI., and 
in the scene that closes his career truthfully depicts him : 

" It thou be'st death, I'll give thee England's treasure, 
Enough to purchase such another island, 
So thou wilt let me live and feel no pain." 

THE NEW FOREST. 

The Itchen flows into the estuary of Southampton Water, and from its 
western shores spreads far away the domain of the New Forest, stretching 
down into the south-western part of Hampshire. This is a remnant of the 
forests that once covered the greater part of the island, and is the most exten- 
sive left in the English lowlands. It was made a royal forest by William the 
Norman, and thus continues to the present time, the largest tract of unculti- 
vated land and one of the finest examples of woodland scenery in the kingdom. 
It covers almost the whole surface between Southampton Water and the Avon, 
which is the western border of Hampshire, but in recent years its area has 
been gradually curtailed, though its extent has never been accurately measured. 
Stretching about fifteen miles from east to west and twenty miles from north- 
west to south-east, it includes about ninety-one thousand acres, of which twenty- 
six thousand belong to private landowners, two thousand are the absolute 
property of the Crown, and the remaining sixty-three thousand acres have 
common and other rights due to a large number of tenants, though the title 
is in the Crown. About twenty-five thousand acres are covered with timber, 
but only five thousand acres of this is old timber, the remainder having been 
planted with trees within the last two hundred years. The surface is gently 
undulating, becoming hilly in the northern parts ; the soil is usually arid, and 
the scenery discloses wide expanses of heathery moor, often marshy in the 
lower grounds, with here and there copses that gradually thicken into wood- 
land as the true forest district is approached. The chief trees are oak and 
beech, which attain to noble proportions, while there are occasional tufts of 
holly and undergrowth. 

Almost in the centre of the forest is the village of Lyndhurst, regarded as 
the best point of departure for its survey — a hamlet with one long street and 
houses dotted about on the flanks of a hill, the summit of which is adorned by 



502 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



a newly-built church of red brick with bath-stone dressings. Within this church 
is Sir Frederick Leighton's fresco of the " Wise and Foolish Virgins." In the 
ponderous "Queen's House," near the church, lives the chief official of the 
forest, and here are held the courts. Formerly, this official was always a 
prince royal and known as the lord warden, but now his powers are vested in 
the "First Commissioner of Woods and Forests:" here the poacher was in 
former days severely punished. The New Forest was originally not only a 




NEW FOREST, FROM BRAMBLE HILL. 

place for the king's pleasure in the chase, but it also furnished timber for the 
royal navy, though this fell into disuse in the Civil War. Subsequently parts 
were replanted, and William III. planted by degrees six thousand acres with 
trees. The great storm of 1703 uprooted four thousand fine trees, and then 
again there was partial neglect, ami it was not until within a halt century that 
a serious effort was made to fully restore the timber. There have now been 
ten thousand acres planted: a nursery for young trees has been established, 
and about seven hundred acres are annually planted, the young oaks being 
set out between Scotch firs, whose more rapid growth protects the saplings 
from the gales, and when they are able to stand alone the firs are thinned out. 
About four miles north of Lynclhurst and beyond Minstead is Rufus's Stone. 
Around Minstead Manor the land has long been enclosed and cultivated, ami 
looks as little like a wild forest as can be imagined, while northward the ground 
rises to the top of Stony Cross Hill, disclosing one of the finest views in this 
region, looking down over a wide valley, with cultivated fields on its opposite 



THE NEW FOREST. 



503 



sides and woodland beyond, gently shelving to Southampton Water, of which 
occasional glimpses may be had. There is an abundance of woodland every- 
where, checquered by green lawns. At our back is the enclosed park, within 
which some intrenchments mark the site of Castle Malwood, where tradition 
says that William Rufus passed the night previous to his death. The king 
just before dawn aroused his attendants by a sudden outcry, and rushing into 
the chamber they found him in such agitation that they remained there until 




RUFUS S STONE. 

morning. He had dreamed he was being bled, and that the stream from his 
veins was so copious that it rose to the sky, obscuring the sun. The daylight 
also brought other omens: a foreign monk at the court had been dreaming, 
and saw the king enter a church, seize the rood, and rend it with his teeth ; the 
holy image at first submitted to the insult, then struck down the king, who, 
while prostrate, vomited fire and smoke which masked the stars. The king, 
whose courage- had returned with daylight, made light of the monk's tale, though 
he did not go to hunt as usual that morning, but after dinner, having taken 
liberal drafts of wine, rode out with a small party, including Walter Tyril, lord 
of Pontoise, lately arrived from Normandy. They hunted throughout the 



504 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



afternoon, and near sunset the king and Tyril found themselves alone in a 
glade below the castle. A stag bounded by, and the king- unsuccessfully shot 
at him; then another ran past, when Tyril shot his arrow, bidden, as tradition 
says, by the king "in the devil's name." The arrow struck William Rufus full 
in the chest, and he dropped lifeless. Tyril, putting spurs to his horse, galloped 
westward to a ford across the Avon into Dorsetshire. Soon alter a charcoal- 
burner named Purkis, whose descendants still live in the New Forest, came 
past, found the king's body, and, placing it on his cart, bore it, still bleeding, to 
Winchester. Tyril's arrow had glanced from a tree, which long existed, but, 
decaying centuries afterward. Rufus's Stone was set up to mark the spot. This 
became mutilated, and has been enclosed in an iron casing, with copies ot the 
original inscriptions on the outside. It is now a cast-iron pillar about five feet 
high, with a grating at the top, through which may be seen the stone within. 
It stands on a gentle slope, not quite at the bottom of the valley, with pretty 
scenerv around. Tyril got his horse shod at the Avon ford, for which often. ■ 
the blacksmith afterwards paid an annual fine to the Crown. He was not very 
hotly pursued, however, and made his escape into Normandy, where he sturdily 
denied that the arrow was shot by him at all, laying the blame to a conspiracy 
of the king's enemies, of whom he had main. 

Southward from Lyndhurst the road goes over undulating ground and 
through magnificent oaks and beeches to Brockenhurst, past a heron ry at 
Vinney Ridge. This section contains some of the finest trees in the torest, 
with plenty of dense holly and an occasional yew. The ground discloses the 
bracken fern, and gray lichen clings thickly to the trunks and branches of the 
tires. The woodland views along this road are splendid, and only need the 
wild animals of a former era to bring back the forest-life of mediaeval times. 
Off to the eastward, standing on the little river Exe, are the loliage-clad ruins 
of Beaulieu Abbey, founded by King |ohn, and now held by the Duke ot Buc- 
cleuch, who lias a mansion near by. Here was buried John's mother. Eleanor 
of Aquitaine, and here came the widow of Warwick the King-maker, after the 
battle of Barnet, for sanctuary. Perkin Warbeck when defeated also took 
refuge at Beaulieu, where he surrendered on promise of mercy. The abbey 
is a wreck now, for after its dissolution we are told that its stones "went to 
build Henry VIII.'s martello tower at Hurst, and its lead to repair Calshot" 
on Southampton Water, while the gatediouse serves as the entrance to the 
modern ducal mansion, and the refectorv is the parish church. Here are the 
tombs ot Mary Dore and Mary Do. The former was a noted witch, "who 
could transform herself into a hare or cat, and afflict or cure all the cattle in 
the neighborhood." The latter is credited with more celestial attributes in 



THE NEW FOREST. 



505 



the obituary that survives her than were allotted her unfortunate companion ; 
and the acrostic inscription on her tomb is often quoted: 

'Merciless fate (to our greate griefe and woi 
A prey hath here made of our deere Moll Do, 
Rapte up in duste and hid in earthe and i laye, 
Yet live her smile and virtues now and aye; 
Death is a debt all owe which must be paide 
Oh that she knew, and of it was not afraide !" 

To the westward of Beaulieu is Brockenhurst, a pretty forest village, along 
whose main street we are told the deer formerly galloped on a winter's night, 
to the great excite- 
ment of all the dogs 
therein. The forest 
almost blends with 
the village - gr een, 
and on a low arti- 
ficial mound stands 
its church, with traces 
of almost every style 
of architecture since 
the Conquest, and 
"uarded by a famous 
yew and oak. At 
Boldre, near Brock- 
enhurst, lived Rev. 
W. Gilpin, the vicar 
of the parish, the au- 
thor of several works 
on sylvan scenery, 
and reputed to be 

the original of the 

noted Dr Svntar brockenhurst church, with the famous yew and oak. 

who made such a humorous "Tour in Search of the Picturesque." He now 
lies at rest under a maple alongside his church, in which Southey was married. 
Ringwood is the chief town of the western forest-border upon the level plain 
that forms the Avon Valley where Tyril escaped across the lord. It is not a 
very interesting place. A little way up the river, near Horton, " King Mon- 
mouth" was captured after Sedgemoor, and from Ringwood he wrote the 
abject letters begging his life from Kin^ James, who turned a deaf ear to all 
r.i 




506 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



entreaty. Alice Lisle, who was judicially murdered by Judge Jeffreys for shel- 
tering two refugees from that battle, also lived at Moyle Court, near Ringwood. 
The chief inn is the "White Hart," named in memory of Henry VII.'s hum in 
the New Forest, where the game, a white hart, showed fine running throughout 
the day, and ultimately stood at bay in a meadow near the village, when, at the 
intercession of the ladies, the 'rounds were called off, the hart secured, given a 
gold collar, and taken to Windsor. The inn where the king partook of refresh- 
ments that day had its sign changed to the White Hart. It was at Bisterne, 
below Ringwood, that Madonie of Berkeley Castle slew the dragon, for which 
feat King Edward IV. knighted him — a tale that the incredulous will find con- 
firmed by the ik^A still preserved in Berkeley Castle which records the event, 
confers the knighthood, and gives him permission to wear the dragon as his 
badge. 

CHRLSTC HURCH. 
From Brockenhurst the Lymington River llows southward out of the New 
Forest into the Solent, across which is the Isle of Wight, steamers connecting 




Till: PRIORY, FROM Till: CJL.W, AM) PLACE MILLS, CHRISTCHURCH 

Lymington at the mouth of the river with Yarmouth on the island. About 
twelve miles westward from Lymington is Christchurch, at the confluence <>l 
the Avon and Stour Rivers, which here form the estuary known as Christ- 
church Bay. The Avon flows down past Ringwood on the western verge of 



CHRISTCHURCH. 



507 



tilt- New Forest, its lower valley being a wide grassy trough in a rolling plateau 
of slight elevation. The moors, with many parts too arid for cultivation, extend 
to the sea, having glens here and there whose sandy slopes are often thickly 
wooded, and whose beds are traversed by the "bournes" that give names to 
so many localities in this region. Along all the sea-border fashionable water- 
ing-places are springing up, which enjoy views 
over the water to the distant chalk-downs 
the Isle of Wight, one of the best being that 
from Boscombe Chine. Through this ^^ 
land the Avon flows, and J - 

the Stou renters it from 
the west, with 
the ancient town 
of Christchurch 
standing on the 
broad angle be- 
tween them. It 
is of Roman origin, 
and the remains of 
a British castle 
crown the neighbor- 
ing promontory of 
Hengistbury Head. 
The chief attraction 
is the magnificent 
Priory Church, found- 
ed before the Normal 
Conquest, but rebuilt 
terwards and dedicated! 
Holy Trinity. The ancient 
town was known as Twynham from the two rivers, and it then became Christ- 
church-at-Twynham, but the original name was ultimately dropped. It was a 
royal demesne in Edward I.'s reign, and Edward III. granted it to the Earl of 
Salisbury, whose countess was the heroine of the institution of the Order of the 
Garter. It is a sleepy, old-fashioned place, with little of interest excepting the 
Priory Church and the castle. The square church-tower rises high above the 
Avon, a landmark from afar, its mass of gray masonry catching the eye from 
away over the sea. The church is of large dimensions, cruciform in plan, with 
short transepts, and a Lady chapel having the unusual peculiarity of an upper 




ISTCl 



5 o8 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



story. It is about three hundred and ten feet long, with the tower at the west- 
ern end, and a large northern porch. The oldest part of the church was built 
in the twelfth century by Flambard, Bishop of Durham, who was granted this 
priory by William Rufus. Subsequently, he fell into disfavor, and the priory 
became a college of the Augustinians. Only the nave and transepts are left 
of his Norman church, the remainder being of later construction. The north 
porch, which has an extremely rich Decorated 
doorway, is of unusual size, having an up- 
per chamber, and dating from the thir- 
teenth century. The nave is of great 
beauty, being separated irom the 
aisles by massive semicircular arches, 
rich in general effect, with a tritorium 
above consisting of a double arcade, 
making it worthy to compete with the 
finest naves in England. The clere- 
story is more modern 
being of Pointed Goth- 
ic, and the aisles 
are also of later 
construction: the 
northern aisle 
contains a beam 
to which is at- 
tached the legend 
that the timber 
was drawn out 
as if an elastic 

material " bv the OLn norman house and view from the minster, christchurch. 

touch of a strange workman who wrought without wages and never spoke 
a word with his fellows." The western tower is of Perpendicular archi- 
tecture, added by the later builders, and beneath it is the handsome marble 
monument erected to the memory of the poet Shelley, drowned at Spezzia 
in 1822: his family lived near Christchurch. The tower contains a peal of 
eight bells, two of them ancient, and from the belfry there is a noble view 
over the valleys of the two rivers, the distant moorlands and woods of the 
New Forest, the estuary winding seaward and glittering in the sun, while 
beneath are the houses and gardens of the town spread out as on a map. 
Among the many monuments in the church is that to Margaret, Countess of 




h »! 



... 



SOUTHAMPTON. 509 



Salisbury, the hist of the line who possessed the priory, and the closing heiress 
of the race of Plantagenets. She was the mother of Cardinal Pole, who 
upheld the cause of the pope against Henry VIII., and she was a prisoner 
in the Tower, held as hostage for his good behavior. At seventy years of 
age she was ordered out for execution, but refused to lay her head upon the 
block, saying, "So should traitors do, and I am none." Then, the historian 
says, "turning her gray head in every way, she bade the executioner, if he 
would have her head, to get it as he could, so that he was constrained to fetch 
it off slovenly." She was beheaded in May, 1 541, being too near in kinship 
to the throne to be allowed to live. Little is left of the ancient priory build- 
ings beyond the ruins of the old Norman gateway. The castle of Christ- 
church has also almost disappeared, leaving only massive fragments of the 
wall of the keep crowning a mound. It was of slight historical importance; 
and a more perfect relic is the ruin of the ancient Norman house standing 
near by on the bank of the Stour, an ivy-clad shell of masonry still showing 
the staircase and interior apartments. This crumbling memorial of the twelfth 
century was the home of Baldwin de Redvers, then Earl 'of Devon. 

SOUTHAMPTON. 
Crossing over the New Forest back to the Southampton Water on its 
eastern border, the river Itchen debouches on the farther shore near the head 
of the estuary, making a peninsula ; and here is the celebrated port of South- 
ampton, located between the river Itchen and the river Test, and having an 
excellent harbor. The Southampton Water extends from the Red Bridge, a 
short distance above the city, to Calshot Castle, about seven miles below, and 
varies in breadth from a mile and a half to two miles, the entrance being well 
protected by the Isle of Wight, which gives the harbor the peculiarity of four tides 
in the twenty-four hours — double the usual number, owing to the island intercept- 
ing a portion of the tidal wave in its flow both ways along the Channel. South- 
ampton comes down from the Romans, and remains of their camp, Clausentum, 
now known as Bittern Manor, are still to be seen in the suburbs, while parts 
of the Saxon walls and two of the old gates of the town are yet preserved. 
The Danes sacked it in the tenth century, and afterwards it was the occasional 
residence of Canute, its shore being said to be the scene of his rebuke to his 
courtiers when he commanded the tide to cease advancing and it disobeyed. 
Southampton was destroyed by foreign invaders in the fourteenth century, and 
rebuilt by Richard II. and strongly fortified. For many years it was a watering- 
place, but within half a century extensive docks have been built, and it has 
become a great seaport, being the point of departure for steamship-lines to all 



;io 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



parts of the world, especially the East Indies and America, as it is but seventy 
miles south-west of London, and thus shortens the sea- voyage for trade from 
the metropolis. The harbor is a fine one, the channel being deep and straight, 
and affording good anchorage. In exploring the antiquities of Southampton 
the visitor will be attracted by an ancient house of the Plantagenet period 
located on St. Michael's Square, said to have been occupied by Henry VIII. 
and Anne Boleyn, and the remains of the town-walls. The old Bargate in 
these walls crosses the High Street, dividing it into "Above Bar" and " Below 
Bar." In the ancient walls are the antique towers known as Arundel Tower 
and Catch- Cold Tower, and also a house (one of the oldest in England) built 
anterior to the twelfth century, and known as King John's Palace. South- 
ampton Park, called the Common, is a pretty enclosure of three hundred and 
sixty acres just north of the city. The picturesque ruins of Netley Abbey- 
are about three miles south of the city, and near them is the Royal Victoria 
Hospital, established just after the Crimean War, both of them on the eastern 
bank of Southampton Water. 



PORTSMOUTH. 

We will follow Southampton Water down to its entrance, where the two 
broad channels dividing the Isle of Wight lrom the mainland — the Solent and 
Spithead — join, and at the point jutting out on the western angle pass Calshot 
Castle, founded for coast-defence by Henry VIII., and 
now occupied by the coast-guard. Skirting along Spit- 
head, which is a prolongation of the Southampton 
Water, without change of direction, 
at about twenty miles from South- 
ampton we round Gillkicker Point, 
forming the western boundary ot 
Portsmouth harbor. Here is Gos- 
port, and east of it is Portsea Island, 
about four miles long and two and 
a half miles broad, on which Ports- 
mouth is located, with its suburbs 
known as Portsea, Landport, and Portsmouth point. 

Southsea. Portsmouth is on the south-western part of the island, separated 
from Portsea by a small stream to the northward, both being united in a for- 
midable fortress whose works would require thirteen thousand men to man, 
though the ordinary garrison is about twenty r -five hundred. The royal dock- 
yard, covering one hundred and twenty acres, is at Portsea, and at Gosport, 




PORTSMOUTH. 



5" 



opposite, are the storehouses, the channel between them, which extends lor 
several miles between Portsea Island and the mainland, gradually widening 
until it attains three miles' breadth at its northern extremity. This channel 
affords anchorage lor the largest vessels, and is defended by Southsea Castle 
on the eastern side and Moncton Fort on the western side of the entrance 
into Spithead, where the roadstead is sheltered by the Isle of Wight. Ports- 
mouth was a port in the days of the Saxons, who in the sixth century called it 
Portsmuthe. It fitted out a fleet of nine ships to aid King Alfred defeat the 
Danes, and its vessels ineffectually endeavored to intercept the Normans when 
they landed near Hastings. In the fourteenth century the French burned the 
town, but were afterwards defeated with heavy loss. Ever since then the 
fortifications have been gradually improved, until now it is one of the strongest 
British fortresses. The Duke of Buckingham was murdered here in 1628, and 
part of the house where he was killed still remains. In 1757, Admiral Byng 
was executed here, and in 1782 the ship "Royal George" was sunk with 

Admiral Kempenfelt and " twice 
four hundred men." The town ot 
Portsmouth contains little that is 
attractive beyond its ancient church 
of St. Thomas a Becket, built in 
the reign of Henry II., and con- 
tain in <7 on its register the record 
of the marriage of Charles II. with Cath- 
arine of Braganza in 1662. This mar- 
riage took place in the garrison chapel, 
which was originally the hospital of St. 
Nicholas, founded in the time of Henry 
III. The chief place of interest is the 
dockyard at Portsea, the entrance to 
which, by the Common Hard, or terrace 




H. M. S. " VICTORY. 



fronting the harbor, bears the date of 
171 1. Here they have many relics of 
famous ships, and also vast numbers of boats, and all kinds of materials for 
building war-vessels, especially iron and armor-plated ships, with the docks 
and slips for their construction. Off the dockyard lies at anchor the must 
famous of the "wooden walls of old England," the "Victory," the ship in 
which Nelson died at Trafalgar, then the most powerful vessel of the British 
navy. Near her is anchored another celebrated man-of-war, the port-admiral's 
flag-ship, the " Duke of Wellington." The stores across the harbor at Gosport 



512 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



are on a large scale, and are known as the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard. 
In the southern part of Gosport is the Haslar Hospital for sick and disabled 

sailor-, and soldiers. From Gillkicker Point beyond, a sandbank stretches 
about three miles out from the shore in a south-easterly direction, and is called 
the Spit. This gives the name to the roadstead o\ Spithead, west o( which is 
the quarantine station of Motherbank. This is the great roadstead of the 
British navy, and in the miles of clocks, sheds, forges, basins, and shops ot 
Portsmouth harbor that weary the tourist, who thinks he ought to dutifully 
go through them, are fashioned main of the monster iron-clads that modern 
improvements have made necessary in naval architecture. 



Till". ISLE OF WIGHT. 

Crossing over the narrow strait — for there is ample opportunity by several 
routes — we will complete this English tour by a journey beyond the Solent and 
Spithead to the Isle of Wight. This island, formed like an irregular lozenge 




HARBOR 

about twenty-two miles long and thirteen broad, is rich in 
scientific and historical associations, and a marvel ot climate 
and scenery. Its name of Wight is said to preserve the British 
word "gwyth," the original name having been " Ynys-gwyth," or the "Chan- 
nel Island." The Roman name was " Vectis," Rome having conquered it in 
Claudius' time. The English descended upon it in the early part ot the sixth 
century, and captured its chief stronghold, Whitgarasbyrg, now Carisbrooke 
Castle. It afterwards became part of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex, and St. 
Wilfrid, Archbishop of York, is said to have converted its people to Christianity. 
Then the Panes devastated it, and after the Norman Conquest it was subdued 
by Fitzosborne, Earl of Hereford, whose descendants rtded it until Edward I. 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



513 



recovered the wardenship 
for the Crown. Richard II. 
granted it to the Earl of 
Salisbury, and Henry VI. 
created the Earl of War- 
wick, Henry Beauchamp, 
"king of the Isle of Wight," 
crowning him with his own 
hands. The title reverted to 
the Crown in the time of 
Henry YII. The French sev- 
eral times invaded the island, 
and it was the intention of 
the leaders of the Spanish 
Armada to capture and use 
it as a base for operations 
against England, but the 
English fleet harassed them 
so badly that they had to sail 
past without effecting a landing, 
considerable figure. 

Beginning at the western end of the lozenge-shaped island, beyond which 
are the Needles, the entrance to the Solent is found defended by successive 




THE NEEDLES, FROM ALUM BAY. 

In the Civil War the Isle of Wieht made a 




YARMOUTH. 



batteries on every headland, with Hurst Castle on the Hampshire shore. High 
Down, with its fine chalk-cliffs, rises six hundred feet above the sea, being 
haunted by numerous sea-gulls, and under it is Scratchell's Cave, a singular 
recess in the rock accessible only by boat. Sheltered by the bold headland is 



65 



5i4 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



Alum Bay, with its tinted sands, gray, buff, and red, and from Headon Hill, its 
eastern boundary, the coast stretches away to Yarmouth, a little town on the 
Solent, where are the remains of one of the defensive blockhouses built by 
Henry VIII. The shores of the strait trend to the north-east, with pleasant 
views across on the coast of Hampshire, until the northernmost point of the 
Isle of Wight is reached, where its thief stream, the Medina, Hows into the 
strait through an estuary about five hundred yards wide. Here is Cowes, 




OSBORNE HOUSE, FROM THE SEA. 



divided by the river into the West Cow and the East Cow, the plural form 
of the name being modern. It is a popular bathing-place, but gets the most 
fame from being the head-quarters of the Royal Yacht Club; their house is 
the old castle at the Medina entrance, built by Henry VIII., it is said, with por- 
tions of the masonry of Beaulieu Abbey. The harbor, at the proper season, 
is usually clotted with yachts. There is steam communication with the main- 
land, and a railway runs inland to Newport, the chief town ot the island. Nt ar 
East Cowes is Whippingham, which was the birthplace of Dr. Arnold, the famous 
head-master of Rugby School. Ascending the Medina, the beautiful park and 
gardens of O borne House, the marine residence of Queen Victoria, border 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 515 



its eastern margin. This was the ancient manor of Austerbourne, and its 
owner in the Civil War buried all his money and plate in an adjoining wood, 
called the Money Copse, so as to preserve it. When peaceful days came back 
he went to get it, but found he had concealed it so thoroughly that it could not 
be recovered. The queen bought the estate in 1844, and the plain mansion 
was extended into an elegant marine villa just back from the sea-coast. It 
was the queen's childhood attachment to the locality that made her settle here, 
for when a young princess she had passed many pleasant days in the neigh- 
boring Norris Castle. 

East of the Medina the coast trends to the south-east, the shores being lined 
by fine villas surrounded with highly-cultivated grounds; indeed, the coast of 
the strait seems like an extended park. Here, opposite Portsmouth, is the 
famous watering-place of Ryde, in a beautiful situation, and with railways 
running across the island to Sandown and Ventnor. The land steeply rises 
from the sea, with the town stretching along its slope, a panorama of villas 
whose trees o-row down to the water's edgfe. It is an ancient town, having; 
existed in the reign of Richard II., when the French burned it, but none of 
the present buildings are of much antiquity, it having in later years been 
gradually converted into a fashionable watering-place. The pier is the pop- 
ular promenade, and the Spithead roadstead in front is closely connected with 
English naval history. It was here that the " Royal George " went down on a 
calm day and drowned her admiral and eight hundred men: she was careened 
over, the better to make some repairs, and, a squall striking her, it is said the 
heavy guns slid down to the lower side and tipped the vessel over, when she 
quickly filled and sank. Here also, in 1797, was the great mutiny in Eord 
Bridport's fleet, the sailors, when the signal to weigh anchor was given, de- 
clining to do it until their just demands were granted; the mutiny was sup- 
pressed and the leaders severely punished. All the neighboring shores bristle 
with forts and batteries protecting the entrance to Spithead. Inland are the 
Binstead quarries, whose stone was in demand in the Middle Ages and built 
parts of Winchester Cathedral. Beaulieu Abbey, and Christchurch ; also, here 
are the scanty remains of Ouarr Abbey. Eastward of Ryde the coast is low 
and bends more to the southward, reaching the estuary known as Brading 
Harbor, a broad sheet of water at full tide, but a dismal expanse of mud at 
low water, through which a small stream meanders. At Brading is the old 
Norman church which St. Wilfrid founded, of which Rev. Legh Richmond, 
author of the Annals of the Poor, was the curate. In the churchyard is the 
grave of his heroine, little Jane, the " Dairyman's Daughter." Extensive 
remains of a Roman villa have been discovered at Morton, near Brading, and 



5*6 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



to the eastward of them a hyptocaust. Rounding the Foreland, which is the 
easternmost point of the island, the chalk-rocks rise again, and W'hitecliff Bay 
nestles under the protection of the lofty Culver Cliff as the coast-line bends 
south-west and then makes a grand semicircular sweep to the southward 
around Sandown Bay. This wide expanse broadens between the two chalk- 
ridges that cross the Isle of Wight from its western side. The railway from 
Ryde runs across the chalk-downs to the growing watering place of San- 
down, standing on the lowest part of the shores of the hay. Here the coast 
is guarded by a grim fort, and here in the last century came the noted John 
Wilkes to recuperate after his contests with the House of Commons, which 
vainly tried to keep him out of his seat. 

The chalk-ranges to the southward provide magnificent scenery, and two 

miles from Sandown, but on higher 
ground, is Shanklin, from which its cele- 
brated chine descends to the sea. This 
little ravine is about four hundred and 
fifty yards long and at its mouth about 
two hundred feet deep. It has been 
gradually worn in the brown sandstone 
rock by the action of a diminutive brook 
that bubbles over a little cascade at the 
upper end. The rich colors of the crags, 
the luxuriant foliage of the slopes, and 
the rhapsodies of guide books combine 
to give the Shanklin Chine a world-wide 
fame. It was here that a party of French 
under the Chevalier d'Eulx landed in 
1545 to get some fresh water. The pro- 
cess was tedious, the stream being so small, and the 
chevalier and some of his party, wandering inland, 
were caught in an ambuscade. He and most of the 




SHANKLIN CHINE. 



others were killed, though they defended themselves bravely. South of Shank- 
lin the chalk-cliffs are bold and lofty, and off these pretty shores the "Eurydice" 
was lost in a squall, March 24, 1878, when returning from her training-cruise 
in the West Indies. It was at four o'clock on Sunday afternoon, and her ports 
being open when the squall struck her, she capsized and almost immediately 
ioundered, only two survivors remaining out of the three hundred persons on 
board. Climbing the cliffs south of Shanklin and crossing the summit, we reach 
Bonchurch on the southern coast, described by Dr. Arnold as the most beauti- 



THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



5*7 



ful thing on the sea-coast north of Genoa. Here villas are dotted and the 
villages are spreading into towns, for the coast of the Undercliff is becoming 
one of the most fashionable resorts the English have. Already complaints are 
made that a too general extension of settlements is interfering with the pictur- 
esque wildnessof sce- 
nery and luxuriant 
vegetation that are 
the great charm of 
this delightful region. 
The Undercliff 
stretches along the 
southern coast for 
several miles to the 
westward of Bon- 
church— an irregular 
terrace formed by the 
sliding forward of the 
chalk-downs, which 
clip gently towards 
the sea. This makes 
a lofty natural ter- 
race, backed by cliffs 
to the northward and 
open to the full in- 
fluence of the south- 
ern sun. It has the 
climate of Madeira, 
and is fanned by the 
sea-breezes that in- 
vigorate but do nOt THE UNDERCLIFF. 

chill. The mildness of the winter makes it a popular resort for invalids, and 
many greenhouse plants live outdoors throughout the year, the almost per- 
pendicular rocks of the Undercliff absorbing during the day the heat that they 
radiate throughout the night. Yet at Bonchurch many who had sought health 
in this beautiful region ultimately found a grave, and of its churchyard it has 
been written, " It might make one in love with death to think one would be 
buried in so sweet a place." The ancient little Norman church ot St. Boniface 
is still here, but a new and lamer church was built not lon<j- ago. Here lies 
Rev. W. Adams, who wrote the allegory Under the Shadow of the Cross, and it 




5 R ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. 



is strictly true, for the cross raised as his monument casts its shadow on the 
slab over his grave. Admiral Hobson was born at Bonchurch, and ran away 
from the tailor's shop in which he was apprenticed to come back knighted for 
his victory over the Spaniards at Vigo Bay. Ventnor, known as the "metrop- 
olis of the Undercliff." is beyond Bonchurch, and is also a thriving watering- 
place, above which rises the attractive spire of Holy Trinity Church, built by 
the munificence of three sisters. 

From \ r entnor the most beautiful part of the island coast stretches westward 
to Niton. The bold chalk-downs rise from their craggy bases, the guardians 
of the broken terrace intervening between them and the sea. Foliage and 
ivy cling to them ; flowers cluster on the turf and banks and gleam in the 
crevices ; and little streams come down the ravines. Here was the smallest 
church of England — St. Lawrence — twenty feet long, twelve wide, and six feet 
high to the eaves. A chancel has lately been added, while below are the ivy- 
clad ruins of the ancient Woolverton Chapel. Near Niton, at Puckaster Cove, 
Charles II. landed after a terrific storm ; and beyond is Roche End, the southern 
point of the island. The coast, a dangerous one, then trends to the north-west, 
and wrecks there are frequent, while inland St. Catharine's Down rises steeply, 
there being a magnificent view of the island from its summit, elevated seven 
hundred and fifty feet. Here in the fourteenth century was founded, on the 
highest part of the Isle of Wight, a chantry chapel where a priest prayed for 
the mariner and at night kept a beacon burning to warn him off the reefs. An 
octagonal tower of the chapel remains, but a lighthouse supersedes the pious 
labors, of the priest; a column near by commemorates a visit of the Russian 
Czar to the summit of the hill in 1814. The wild scenery of this region is 
varied by the great landslip which in 1799 carried about one hundred acres 
down towards the sea, the marks of its progress being still shown in the rended 
rocks and wave-like undulations of the earth. About a mile to the westward 
is the most noted and wildest of the ravines of the island, the Blackgang Chine, 
now filled with paths and summer-houses, for the thrifty hotel-keepers could 
not help domesticating such a prize. It is a more open ravine than that at 
Shanklin, and like it cut out by a tiny stream, while far away through the 
entrance is a distant view westward to Portland Isle and St. Aldhelm's Head. 
The rocks are dark green, streaked with gray and brown sandstone, looking 
like uncouth courses of masonry. The adjoining coast is guarded by grim 
crags on which many ships have been shattered. There are other chines to 
the westward — all of great attractions, though of less size and celebrity. The 
coast is not of so much interest beyond, but the cliffs, which are the outposts 
of the chalk-measures, become more lofty at Freshwater Gate, and our sur- 



i ARISBROOKE CASTLE. 



5 '9 



vey of the island shores terminates at the Main Bench, whose prolonged point 
goes out to the Needles. 



CA RISBROOK E CASTLE. 
Following up the Medina River a few miles, almost to the centre of the 
island, it leads to the metropolis, the little town of Newport, and hen-, upon 
an outer precipice of the chalk- 
downs overlooking the river-valley 
and the town, and elevated two hun- 
dred feet above the sea, is Caris- 
brooke Castle. The oldest part of 
the present remains come down 
from Fitzosborne, but additions 
were afterwards made, and Queen 
Elizabeth, in anticipation of the 
descent of the Armada, had an 
outer line of defence constructed, 
pentagonal in shape and enclosing 
considerable space. The loyalty 
of the people in that time of trial 
was shown by their subscribing 
money and laboring without pay 
on these works. The ruins are 
not striking, but are finely situated 
on the elevated ridge. They are 
much decayed, but the entrance- 
gateway is well preserved, with its 
flanking round towers, portcullis, 

and ancient doors. Here lived Charles 1. ami two of his children. A small 
stone building within the enclosure covers the famous well of Carisbrooke, 
sunk in Stephen's clays, two hundred and forty feet deep, of which ninety feet 
are filled with water. A solemn donkey in a big wooden wheel works the 
treadmill that winds the bucket up. Formerly, every visitor dropped a pebble 
into the well to hear the queer sounds it made in falling — "His head as he 
fell went knicketty-knock, like a pebble in Carisbrooke Well," used to be a 
proverb — but as this amusement threatened to fill up the well, it has been 
prohibited. The keep is at the north-eastern angle of the castle, polygonal 
in plan and of Norman architecture. Carisbrooke was held for the empress 
Maud against Stephen, but the failure of the old well in the keep, now filled 




520 ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE ASP DESCRIPTIVE. 



up, caused its surrender. The new one. which has never been known Lo give 
out, was then bored. In the reign of Charles I. the castle was invested by 
militia on behalf of the Parliament, and was surrendered to them by the wife 
of the governor, the Countess of Portland. She obtained specially advan- 
tageous conditions from the besiegers by appearing on the walls with a lighted 
match and threatening to fire the first cannon unless the conditions were grant- 
ed. Kin- Charles 1. took refuge here in November, 1647, but soon found he 
was practically a prisoner. Me remained ten months, twice attempting to 
escape. On the first occasion he tried to squeeze himself between the bars 
of his window, but stuck fast; on the second his plan was divulged, and on 
looking out the window he found a guard ready to entrap him below. He was 
taken to Newport and surrendered himself to the Parliamentary commissioners, 
but was ultimately returned to Carisbrooke. Then some army officers removed 
him suddenly to Hurst Castle on the mainland, and thence he was taken to 
Windsor and London for the trial that ended on the block at Whitehall. Two 
of his children were imprisoned in Carisbrooke with him — the young Puke of 
Gloucester, afterwards sent to the Continent, and the princess Elizabeth, who 
died here in childhood from a fever. She was found dead with her hands 
clasped in the attitude ot prayer and her iace resting on an open Bible, her 
father's last gift. She was buried in an unmarked grave in Newport Church, 
but the coffin was discovered in 1793, and when the church was rebuilt in 1856 
Queen Victoria erected a handsome monument over the little princess, the 
sculptor representing her lying on a mattrass with her cheek resting on the 
open Bible, the attitude in which she had been found. Newport has some ten 
thousand population. 

TENNYSON'S HOME. 

Tennyson's pretty home is at Farringford, near Freshwater, on the western 
slope ot the Isle ol Wight, just where it begins to contract into the long point 
of the chalk-cliffs that terminate with the Needles. At Brixton, on the south- 
western coast, is Bishop Ken's parsonage, where William Wilberforce spent 
the closing years of his life. The little rectory here is honorably distinguished 
as having given to the Church of England three of its famous prelates: Bishop 
Ken, one ot the martyrs whom fames II. imprisoned in the Tower, and whose 
favorite walk is still pointed out in the pretty garden ; Bishop Samuel W'ilber- 
torce ot Winchester, whose unfortunate death occurred not lontr aoo at Ever- 
shed Rough ; and the present Bishop Moberly of Salisbury. The western 
extremity ot the Isle of Wight is a peninsula, almost cut off from the main 
island by the little river Yar, which (lows into the Solent at Yarmouth. This 



THE NEL /'/.AX 52 1 



is known as the Freshwater Peninsula, and presents almost unrivalled attrac- 
tions lor the tourist and the geologist. The coast-walk around the peninsula 
from Freshwater Gate to Alum Bay extends about twelve miles. The bold 
and picturesque chalk-cliffs tower far above the sea, their dazzling whiteness 
relieved by the rich green foliage. Some of these hills rise lour hundred feet, 



FARRINGFORD, TENNYSON S RESIDENCE. 



forming the chalk-downs that are the backbone of this most attractive island. 
Among these hills are bewitching little vales and glens, and almost every 
favored spot is availed of as a villa site. No part of England is more sought 
as a place of rural residence than this richly-gifted isle, thus set as a gem 
upon the southern shore of the kingdom. 

THE NEEDLES. 
With the terminating western cliffs of the chalk-hills of the Isle of Wight 
beyond High Down we will close this pleasant journey. The far-famed 
Needles are a row of wedee-like masses of hard chalk running out to sea 
in the direction of the axis of the range of hills. They do not now much 
resemble their name, but in earlier years there was among them a conspicuous 
pinnacle, a veritable needle, one hundred and twenty feet in height, that fell 
in 1764. At present the new lighthouse, built at the seaward end of the outer- 
most cliff, is the nearest approach to a needle. The headland behind them is 
crowned by a fort several hundred feet above the sea. There were originally 



5 22 



ENGLAND, PICTURESQUE AXD DESCRIPTIVE. 



five of these pyramidal rocks, but the waves are continually producing changes 
in their form, and now but three of them stand prominently out of the water. 

And now our task is done. The American visitor landing at Liverpool has 
been conducted through England, and has been shown many of its more 
prominent attractions, but not by any means all of them, for that would be 
an impossible task. But he has been shown enough to demonstrate the claim 
of the mother-country to the continued interest of the Anglo-Saxon race from 
bevond the sea; and to this pleasant panorama and description there cannot be 
given a better termination than at the lovely Isle of Wight, the perfection of 
Eno-lish scenerv and climate, whereof Drayton has written, 

O ' 

"Of all the southern isles, she holds the highest place, 
And evermore hath been the great'st in Britain's grace ; 
Not one of all her nymphs her sovereign favoreth thus, 
Embraced in the arms of old Oceanus." 




THE NEEDLES. 



I NDEX. 



Abbfy Dale, 87. 
Abbey Dore, 370. 

Abbot, Oeorge, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 465. 
Abbot's Hospital, Guildford, 465. 
Abbot's Tower, Alnwick, 328. 
Abbotsbury, 420, 424. 
Abergavenny, 372. 
Abergele, 34. 
Abergwili, 3S2. 
Aber tawe, 376. 
Ahervstwith Castle, 47. 
Abingdon Abbey, 167. 
Ad Pontem, 269. 
Adams, Rev. W., 517. 
Adam and Eve Inn, London, 218. 
Addison, 104, 104, 217. 
Addison's Walk, Oxford, 149, 
Admirals, earliest, in England, 4S9, 
Admiralty Building, London, 197. 
Ali ian IV., Pope, 226. 
/Elfred, 317, 464. 
/Elfrida, 415. 
/Etbelbald, 413. 
.-Ethelbert, 413. 
^Ethelred, 338. 

^Ethelred's Tomb, Wimborne, 415. 
jEthelstan, 412, 425. 
Agglestone, 417. 
Aire, River, 283. 
Aislabie. John, 289. 
Aisle of Tomhs, Chester-le-Street, 320. 
Alan the Red, 294. 
Alard, Gervase, 4S9. 
Alard, Stephen, 489. 
Alban, 225. 

Albert Memorial, Hyde Park, 206. 
Albermarle, Earl of, 307. 
Albert Bridge, Tamar River, 439. 
Albury Down, Guildford, 464, 
Albury Park, 466. 
Alderney, 421,423. 
Aldershot Camp, 467. 
Alexander, King of Scotland, 325. 
Alexander VI., Pope, 404. 
Alfred, King, 3S6, 412. 
All Saints' Church, Oxford, 155. 
All Souls' College, Oxford, 147. 
Aller Church, 412. 
Alne River, 322. 
Alnwick Castle, 322, 323. 
Alnwick Abbey, 325, 329. 
Alton, 495. 
Alton Towers, 91. 
Alum Bay. Isle of Wight, 514. 
American Weed, 166. 
Amesbury, 390, 392. 



Amphibalus, 225. 

Anabaptists, 474, 475. 

Analogy, Butler's, 399. 

Anastasius, 470. 

Anderida, 490. 

Angel Inn, Helston, 456. 

Anglesea, 35. 

Anglesea Column, 38. 

Anglican Monastery, Capel-y-ffyn, 374. 

Angus, Earl, 334. 

Annals of the Poor, 515. 

Annandale, Earl of, 464. 

Anne Boleyn's Seat, Studley Royal, 
290. 

Anne of Cleves, 478. 

Anselm, Archbishop, 481. 

Anstis Cove, 431. 

Anti-Corn Law League, 495. 

Antoninus, 381. 

Apples in Devonshire, 437. 

Aquarium, Brighton, 491, 492. 

Aquila, House of, 489. 

Aram, Eugene, 302. 

Arcadia, 394, 477. 

Arches Court, London, 196. 

Argyle, Earl of, 334. 

Ariconium, 355. 

Arkwright, Sir Richard, 51, 86. 

Armada, Spanish, 223, 382,437, 513, 
519. 

Armada trophies, 233. 

Armstrong guns. 321. 

Armstrong. Sir William, 321. 

Arnold, Dr., 168, 516. 

Arnold, Dr., birthplace, Whipping- 
ham, 514. 

Arran Fowddwy, 28. 

Arthur, King, birthplace, 452. 

Arthur, King, tomb, 408. 

Arun River, 493, 495. 

Arundel Castle, 493, 494. 

Arundel, Earl of. 493, 494. 

Arundel Tower, Southampton, 510. 

Ascot, 3S4. 

Ashby de la Zouche, 109. 

Ashby, St. Leger, 12S. 

Ash down, 386. 

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 153. 

Asparagus Island, Kynance, 458. 

Astley, Sir Jacob, 115. 

Aston Hall, Birmingham, 125. 

Athelney, Isle of, 412. 

Athelstan, 338. 

Auckland, 319. 

Auditor's Tower. Alnwick, 328. 

Audley, Baron Thomas, 234, 248. 

Audley End, 234. 



Austerbourne, 515. 

Austin Friars Priory, 99. 

Avelon, Isle of, 407. 

Avon ford, New Forest, 504. 

Avon gorge, 400. 

Avon River, 118, 139, 337,387. 394, 

415.432. 5°'. 5°°- 
Axe River, 406, 424. 
Axminster, 424. 
Axminster carpets, 392. 
Ayre, Point of, 59. 

Babbioimbf. Bay, 430, 431. 

Bablock Hythe Ferry, 140. 

Backs of Colleges, Cambridge, 239. 

Bacon, Francis, 261. 

Bacon, Francis, tomb, 230. 

Bacon, Roger, friar, 150, 168. 

Baggy Point, Devonshire, 449. 

Bagley Wood, 168. 

Bagworthy Water, 443. 

Baker, Chancellor, 475. 

Baker's Cross, Sissinghurst, 475. 

Bakewell, 76. 

Bala Lake, 28, 47. 

Balliol College, Oxford, 144. 154. 

Balliol, King, 321. 

Ballvvvasta, 377. 

Balsham, Hugh de, 246. 

Bamborough, 330, 335. 

Bamborough Castle, 335. 

Banbury, 158. 

Bangor, 37. 

Bangor-ys-Coed, 31. 

Bank of England, 20S. 

Bankes, Lady, 417. 

Bankes, Sir John, 417. 

Banstead, 473. 

Barbican, Alnwick, 32;. 

Barbican, Sandwich, 485. 

Bard, the, 40. 

Bardon Hill, 109. 

Bardon Tower, the Strid, 287. 

Bargate, Southampton, 510. 

Barmoor Wood, Flodden, 334. 

Barmouth, 44. 

Barnard Castle, 325. 

Barnard, Lady, 119. 

Barnard's Heath, St. Albans, 229. 

Barndoor Cove, 418. 

Barnstaple, 449. 

Barnstaple Bay, 449. 

Barrow-in-Furness, 56. 

Barry, Sir Charles, 91, 202. 

Basingstoke Canal, 467. 

Baslow, 85. 

Bassenthwaite Lake, 67. 

523 



5=4 



INDEX. 



Basset, Gilbert, 165. 
Bath, 394. 
Bath bricks, 409. 
Bath stone, 3S6. 
Bathurst, Earl, 13S, 147. 
Battle of Dorking, 471. 
Battle of Hastings, 489. 
Batiledon. 115. 
Bayeux Tapestry, 490. 
Bayham Abbey, 475. 
Beachy Head, 490. 
Beacon Hill, Harwich. 23S. 
Beacon Walks, Exmouth, 424. 
Beaconsfield Club, London, 214 
Bearwood, 385. 

Beauchamp Chapel, Warwick, 121. 
Beauchamp, Henry, 377. 513. 
Beauchamp, Thomas, Earl of War- 
wick, 121. 
Beauchamp Tower, 193. 
Beauchief Abbey. S7 
Beaufort, Cardinal, 500, 501. 
Beaufort, Jane, 176. 
Beaufort, Duke of, 366, 369, 380. 
Beaulieu Abbey, 504, 514. 
Beaumaris Castle, 36. 
Beaumonts, the, 109. 
Beaver Lake. 270. 
Bebbanburg, 335. 
Becket, St. Thomas a. 165, 481. 
Becket, St. Thomas a. slain. 482 
Becket's Chapel, Peterborough, 25^. 
Becket's shrine. 4S2. 
Beckford, William, 39b. 
Beckington, Bishop, 402. 404. 
Bed of Ware. 234 
Rede, Venerable, 269, 316. ^17. 
Bedford Castle, 129. 
Bedford, Duke of, 131, 439. 
Bedford Level, 254. 
Bedgebury Park, 474. 
bee-ton Castle, 27. 
Bek, Antony. 31S, 325. 
Bell Harry, Canterbury, $2. 
Bell Inn, Edmonton, 2IJ. 
Bell Tower, London, 103 
Bellamont, Henry de. 38 1. 
Bellows, Kynance, 4^s. 
Belted Wdi, 304. 
Belvedere, Windsoi Park, 3S4. 
Iv.lv. hi Castle, So, 100 
Ben Rhydding Palace. 285. 
Bentinck. William, 271. 
Beorm, 124. 

Beresford, Field-marshal, 474. 
Bere-lord Hope, A. J. B., 474, 4S2. 
Berkeley Canal, 337 
Berkeley Castle. 330. 340. 506. 
Berkeley Chapel, Bristol, 399. 
Berkeley, Earls of, 398. 
Berks and Wills Canal, 161. 
Berkshire, 140, 386. 
Bermondsev Monastery, m. 
Berry Head, Torbay, 431. 
Berry Pomeroy Castle, 433. 
Berwick-on-Tweed, 335. 
Berwick, Dorset, 131. 
Bess of Hrudwicke, 71, 271. 
Betchworth Castle, 470. 
Bettws-y-Coed, 41. 



Bevei le> ,27 s 
Beverley Minster, 2J \. 
Bicester, 165. 

Bickleigh Vale, Plym River, 436. 
Bickner, 361. 
-. 106. 
Biddulph, R. Myddleton, 3". 
Bideford, 449. 
Bideford Bridge, 450. 
Bidston, 27. 
Bigner, 495. 

, Roger, 2^7. 305 
Binstead quarries. Lie of Wight, 515. 
Bird-fair, Kirkham, 306. 
Birkenhead, 17. 
Birmingham, 124. 
Bi-ham Abbey, 171. 
Bishop Lloyd- Palace, Chester, 22. 
Bishop's Eye. Wells, 403. 
Bishop's Garden, Wells, 401. 
Bishops Hatfield, 230. 
Bi sterne, 506. 
Bittern Manor, 509. 
Black Down, Mendip Hills, 407. 
Black Friars Monastery, Newcastle, 

321. 
Black Mountain-. 353. 360. 
Black Rood, 310. 319 
Blackgang Clime. Lie ol Wight, s 1 S. 
Blacklow Hill, 308. 
Blackmore, novel, -1. 44;. 
Bladud's Well. Bath. 395. 
Blake, Admiral, 409, 442. 
Blenheim, 162. 
Blenheim Wood-, 157. 
Blickling, 259. 
Bloody Baker's Prison, 475. 
Bloody Gap, Alnwii k. 323. 327. 
Bloodv Meadow. Tewke-burv, 343. 
Bloody Tower, London, 190. 
Blorenge, Abergavenny, 372. 
Boadicea, 225. 
Boar and Sow, 417. 
Boat-wain. dog. 273. 
Bodleian Library, Oxford, 1^2. 
Bold, Jonas, 19. 
Bodley, So Thomas, 153,429. 
Boldre, 505. 

Boleyn, Anne, 477, 510. 
Boleyn, Sir I ieoffrey, 477. 
Boleyn, Sir William, 259. 
Bolsover Castle, 7;. 7-1 
Bolton Abbey, 285. 
Bolton Hall/287. 
Bonchurch, 516, 517. 
Bonwaldesthorne's Tower, 25. 
B01 row dale Valley, 65. 
b. si obel W ood, 347. 
Boscomhe Chine, 507. 
Bossi ney, 452. 
Boston, 263. 
Bo-well, 103, 303. 
Bosworlh Field, 1 13. 
Botanic Garden, Oxford, 149. 
Bothwell, Earl of. 334. 
Boulton and Watt, 127. 
Bourne River, 387. 
Bournemouth, 415. 
Bow and Arrow Castle, 421 
Bow bell-, London, 195. 



Bowder Stone, 65. 

Bow ne-s, 65. 

Bowyer Tower, London, 193. 

Box Hill. 470, 471. 

Box Tunnel. 3S7. 

Boy of Egremont, 2S7. 

Bradda Head. 59. 

Bradford, 284. 

Bradgate, 108. 

Blading Harbor. Isle of Wight, 515. 

Bramble Hill, 502. 

Brandon, Charles, S9. 

Brandon Hill. Bristol, 397. 400. 

Brasenose College. Oxlord, 149. 

Braj 1 'Inn cb. 172. 

Braybrooke, Baron, 2 (6. 

Brayford Pool, 263. 

Brazen head, the, 150. 

Breakwater, Portland, 421. 

Brecknock, 353. 

Brede River, 4S8. 

Brendon River, 446. 

Brendon Hills, Exmoor, 411. 

Buck Tower, London, 193. 

Brictric, King. 343. 

\ north, 95. 

Bndgenoith, Castle. 96. 

Bi idgwater, 409. 

Bridgewater, Earl of, 99. 

Bi idport, Lord, 515. 

Brigg-shot, Leeds, 2S4. 

Brighlstow. 397. 

Brighton, 491. 

Brislee Hill, Alnwick Park, 330. 

Bristol, 397. 

Bristol Cathedral, 39S. 

Bristol Channel, 376, 407, 40S, 440. 

Bristol, Marquis of, 250. 

Bristol milk, 398. 

Bristow Castle, 397. 

Britannia Bridge, 38. 

British Constitution, 67. 

British Museum, 212. 

Brixham, 43 1. 

Brixton, 520. 

Broad Moor, Xasebv, 1 17. 

Broad Walk. Oxford, 146. 

Broadcloth manufacture, 474. 

Broadwater. 179. 

Brocavum, 68. 

Brockenhursl, 504, 505. 

Brockenhurst Church, 405. 

Brockweir, 365. 

Brampton, Chatham, 4S0. 

Bronwen, Lady, 49. 

Brooke, Lord, 102. 

Brooke, Sir James, 435. 

Brougham Castle. 67. 

Brougham, Lord, 2 iS. 

Broughton Castle, 158, 160. 

Broughton, Lady, 27. 

Biown, Capability, 262. 

Brown, Sir William, 20. 

Brown Willy. Mount, 433. 

Ho, wrung. Elizabeth B., 350. 

Brummagem, 125. 

Buccleuch, Duke of, 504. 

Buckhurst, Lord, 23S. 

Buckingham, 134. 

Buckingham, Duke of, 134, 199. 



INDEX. 



525 



Buckingham, Duke of, murdered, 511. 

Buckingham Palace, 199. 

Buckinghamshire, 131. 

Buckland Abbey, 440. 

Bull-running, 91. 

Bumble Rock, Lizard, 459. 

Bunbury College, 27. 

Bunyan, John, 129. 

Burgess, Dr., 404. 

Burghley House, 231, 261. 

Burghley, Lord, 141, 231. 

Burke, Edmund, 397. 

Burke, Sir Bernard, 110. 

Burnet, Bishop, 427. 

Bury St. Edmunds, 250. 

Bushey Park, 17S. 

Bussex Rhine, Sedgemoor, 411. 

Butchers' Row, Hereford, 353. 

Bute, Marquis of, 375. 

Butler, Bishop, 98, 319, 399. 

Butler, Lady, 28. 

Buxton, 75. 

Byng, Admiral, executed, 511. 

Byrom, 53. 

Byron, Lord, 273, 454. 

Byron, Sir John, 273. 

Byron's Pool, 249. 

Cable, Submarine, 458. 

Cabot, Sebastian, 397, 399. 

Cad River, 435. 

Cade, Jack, 179. 

Cader Idris, 45. 

Cadog.m, Lord, 171. 

Csedmon, }io. 

Caer Taff, 375. 

Caergwrle Castle, 34. 

Caerleon, 375. 

Caermarthen, 381. 

Caernarvon, 39. 

Caernarvon Castle, 3S. 

Caernarvonshire, 35. 

Caerphilly Castle, 376. 

Caerwise, 425. 

Cresar, Julius, 177, 469. 

Csesarea, 423. 

Caesar's Tower, Warwick Castle, 121, 

Caister Castle, 256. 

Caithness, Earl of, 335. 

Cains College, Cambridge, 243. 

Cakes, Banbury, 159. 

Calder River, 282. 

Calf of Man. 59. 

Calshot Castle, 509, 510. 

Calveley, Sir Hugh, 27. 

Cam River, 234. 

Cambridge, 239. 

Cambridge Castle, 249. 

Camden, Marquis of, 475. 

Camdentown, London, 215. 

Camelford, 453. 

Campbell, Lord, 169. 

Canova, 470. 

Canterbury, 480. 

Canterbury, Archbishop of, 129, 194. 

Canterbury Castle, 482. 

Canterbury Cathedral, 481, 4S2. 

Canterbury Tales, 483. 

Canute, 509. 

Canynge, William, 399. 



Capel, Lord, 233. 

Capel-y-ffyn, 374. 

Capstone Rock, llfracombe, 448. 

Cardiff, 375. 

Cardigan Bay, 44. 

Cardinal Beaufort's Tower and Gate, 

Winchester, 500. 
Cardinal's Cap Inn, Dorking, 469. 
Carew Castle, 383. 
Carfax Conduit, Oxford, 156. 
Carisbrooke Castle, 512, 519. 
Carisbrooke Well, 519. 
Carlisle, 68. 

Carlisle, Kails of, 90, 303, 304, 307. 
Carlton Club, London, 213. 
Carmelite discipline, 330. 
Carpets, 392, 394, 424. 
Carr, Robert, 414. 
Carrick Roads, Falmouth, 453. 
Caskets, the, Alderney, 421. 
Cassioburv, 233. 
Cassivelaunus, 177, 224. 
Castello, Hadrian de, Bishop, 404. 
Castle Cornet, 423. 
Castle Crag, 65. 
Castle Field, Bridgwater, 410. 
Castle Green, Hereford, 355. 
Castle Hill, 66. 
Castle Hill, Dover, 4S7. 
Castle Hill, Scarborough, 308. 
Castle Howard, 303. 
Castle Malwood, 503. 
Castle Rock, Lynton, 445, 446. 
Castleton, 70. 
Castletown, 60. 

Catch-Cold Tower, Southampton, 510. 
( 'alesby, Robert, 128. 
Catharine of Braganza married, 5 1 1. 
Catharine, queen's tomb, 254. 
Catwater Haven, Plymouth, 437, 438. 
Cavendish, Sir Charles, 271. 
Cavendish, Sir William, 72, 82, 271. 
Cavendish Square. London, 214. 
Cavern of the Peak, 71. 
Caversham, 170. 
Caversham House. 171. 
Cawdor. Earl of. 3S2. 
Cecil, Henry, 262. 
Cecil, Sir Robert, 231. 
Cecil, Sir William, 230. 
Cecil, Thomas. 262. 
Cecil, William Allayne. 261. 
Chain Gate, Wells, 403. 
Chain Pier, Brighton, 491. 
Chalk Cliffs, 486. 
Chalk measures, 463. 
Chanctonbury Hill, 492. 493. 
Channel Islands, 421. 
Chapel Royal, Whitehall, 197. 
Charlecote House, 119. 
Charles I.. 270, 296, 414, 519, 520. 
Charles I., death. 
Charles I , tomb, 177. 
Charles It., 235. 237, 347, 423, 518. 
Charles II., married, 511. 
Charles X., 419. 
Charnwood Forest, 107. 
Chartley Castle, 91. 
Chatham. 480. 
Chatsworth, 73, 81. 



Chatterton, Thomas, 399, 400. 
Chaucer, 161, 190, 244, 249, 480, 

483- 
Chaucer's tomb, 1S9. 
Chavenage, 130. 
Checquers Inn, Canterbury, 480. 
Chequers Inn, Tunbridge, 476. 
Cheddar cheese, 407. 
Cheddar Cliffs, 405. 
Cheddar Forest, Wells, 403. 
Chedzoy, 410. 

Cllee Tor, 76. 

Chelsea Hospital, 238. 

Cheltenham, 13S. 

Chenies, Woburn, 132. 

Chepstow Castle, 367. 

Chertsey, 177. 

Cherwell River, 214. 

Cheshire, 26. 

Chesil Bank, Portland, JI9. 

Chesillon, 420. 

Cheslyn, Richard, 1 10. 

Chester, 21. 

Chester, Earls of, 105, 106. 

Chester-le Street, 314, 320. 

Chesterfield, 74. 

Cheviot Hills, 322. 330, 331. 

Chichele, Archbishop, 147, 14S. 

Chichester, 494. 

Childs, George W., 189. 

Chiltern Hills, 135. 

Chirk Castle, 30. 

Christ Church College, Oxford, 144, 

'45- 
Christ Church. Coventry, 105. 
Christ's College, Cambridge, 248. 
Christchurch, 506. 
Christchurch Castle, 509. 
Christchurch Gate, Canterbury. 4S1. 
Chinch Brixham, 431. 
Church Hope Cove, 421. 
Churchill, John, 102, 304, 41 1. 
Churn River, 137. 
Churnet River, 92. 
Cinque Ports, 4S3. 
Cirencester, 1 38. 
Citadel Point, Plymouth, 437. 
Clapham. 2S6. 

Clare College, Cambridge, 243. 
Clare, Gilbert de, 470. 
Clare, Walter de, 365. 
Clarendon, Earl of, 124. 
Clarendon, Lord, 74. 
Clausentum, 509. 
Cleddan River, 3S2. 
Cliefden, 171. 
Clifford Castle, 353. 
Clifford, Lord, 135. 
Clifford, Rosamond, 135. 
Clifford's Tower, York, 301. 
Clifton, Bristol, 397. 
Clifton- Dartmouth-Hardness, 434. 
Clifton- Hampden, 170. 
Clinton, Geoffrey de, 122. 
Clock Tower, St. Albans, 228. 
Clock Tower, Westminister, 202. 
Clovelly, 450. 
Clovelly Court, 451. 
Clumber Park, 270. 
Clwyd River, 34. 



.=5 2 6 



INDEX. 



Clytheroe Castle. 5; 

Coal-mine?, 312. 321, 370, 377- 

Cobb Pier. Lyme Regi-. 424. 

Cobbett, Colonel, 347. 

Cobden, Richard, 495. 

Cobden Hall, Rochester, 479. 

Codex Beza. Cambridge, 243. 

Coed pen-Maen. 375, 

Gear de Leon, 4^4. 

Coldwell, 361 

Coleridge. S. T.. 67. 

College Walk*. Cambridge, 241. 

Colman's mustard, 2"i 

Coin River, 140. 177 

Color G>urt. St. James Palace, 199. 

Combe Martin, 447. 

Commemoration Day, Oxford, 146. 

Common Hard, Portsea Dockyard, 

511. 
Compton Castle, 431 
Comus, Ma 
Conderum, 320. 
Congleton, 27. 
Coningshy, 470. 
Conrad's Choir, Canterbury, 4S1. 

Tower, Alnwick, 327. 
Constantiue the Great, 295. 
Conslanlius Chlorus, 295. 
Conway Castle, 40. 
C«>nway River. 42 
( S rh -in is, 1 54, 

Copper King, 
1 mines, 453 

Copper-works, 37S 
tel Island, 330. 
Corbieie Promont try, Jersey, 422. 
Corfe Castle, 415. 
Corincus, Giant, 460. 
Corinium, 13S. 
Cormoran. Giant. : 10 
Corner Tower, Alnwick. 328. 
Cornet Castle. 423. 
Cornwall, 452. 
Cornwall, Duchy o!\ 4-3. 
Cornwallis, Lord, 

.hairs, 1S6. 
Corpus Chris . Cambridge, 

Corpus Clin 1 .Oxford, 140. 

Corwen, 28. 

Cotswold Hills, 137,337. 

Cotton, Charles, 75, S7. 

Count of (he Saxon Shore, 4S4, 

"Country Bridal," the, 123. 

Court of Arches, London, 19 

Court of St. |, uues, 199. 

Coventry. 104. 

Cowdray Ruin-, 404. 49^. 

Cowes, 514. 

Cowes Harbor, 512. 

Cowey Slakes, 177. 

Cowley, 177. 

Cox, Bishop of Ely, 2^2. 

Cranbrook, 474. 

1 fiurch, 47;. 
Cranmore Pool. Dartmoor, 4^2 
Crescents. Bath, 395. 
Creslow House, 13s. 
Crewe, Baron Bishop, 3 1 S. 
Cricklade, 137. 



Crimea trophies. 233. 

Crocodile's Tears, 236. 

Cromlechs. 461. 

Cromwell, Oliver. 116, 100. 24S. 340, 

347. 368, 269, 37s. 
Cronk-ny-Jay Llaa, 59 
Cross, Banbury, 1 59. 
Cross, Winchester, 501. 
Crosses. Market, 279, 494. 
Crowland Abbey. 254. 
Croxden Abbey. 02. 
Crumlyn B >g, 381. 

. Robinson, ^o;. 
Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, 85, 207. 
Cumberland, Clifford, Earl of, 301. 
Cumberland, Earl of, 67. 
Cumberland Gate, Hyde Park, 205. 
Cumberlandshire, 64. 
Cumnor Hall, 141. 
Cursus, Stonehenge. 591. 
Cutlers' Hall, Sheffield, 281. 
Cutlery. Sheffield, 280 
Culver Cliff. Lieu; Wight, 510. 

D «t. Lord. 334. 

Dairyman's Daughter. Tit, 515. 

Dale. John, 76. 
Daltoii, Dr., 55. 
Dane River, 27. 
Darling, Grace. 335. 
Darnley, Earl. 479. 
Dart River, 432. 
Dartmoor, 432. 
Dartmouth, 434. 
D.wentry, 1 16. 

Davi I. King of Scotland, 207, 300, 325. 
Davy, Sir Humphry, 402. 
Dawlish, 45 1. 

De Gray, Walter, tomb. York. 300. 
lie I acy. Baron Ilberl, 284. 
1 >e Ros family, 306. 
Deadly N gh - a le, Valley of, 56. 
Deal, 4VJ. 486. 

Dean Forest, 337. 300, 301. 365. 
Dean'- Eye. Wells, 403 
Deans, Jeannie, 274. 
Death Rock, Devon-line. 449. 
Dee. Miller of, 20. 
Dee River. 21. 24, 28. 
Dee. Sands o'. 33. 
D le, 87. 

lene, 470. 

-. 1 1 'iking. 47 I , 
Den i-h. 53. 
I icnc. Ralph de. 475. 
I iennis 1 luval, 488. 

f, 87. 
1 lerby 1 My. Epsom, 472. 
Derby, Earls of, 20, 23, 27. 61, 165, 

472. 
Derbyshire, 70. 

hire mai Li' ;, 82 
Derwent River, 64. 7^, St. 503, jo6, 

it water, 64. 
1 leru en u iter. Earl of. 1 
Despenser, 1 lugh, 370. 
D'Eulx, Chevalier, 510. 
Devil's Bellow-. Lyme Regis, 424. 
Ii'.\ il'- Cheese-Ring, Lynton, 440. 447. 
Devil's (oil-, 14a. 



Devon, Countess of. 440 
Devon. Earls of, 436, 509. 
Devonport. 437. 43V 
Devonshire. Dukes of. 71. 240. 287. 
Devonshire, Earl ^\. 430. 
Dewerstone. Da tmoor, 436. 
Dickens, Charles, 470. 480. 
Digby, Earl of. 41 ;, 

. G. D. Winglield, 415. 
Dinan, Joyce de, 97. 
1 1. n 1- Bran 1 >stl< . -' 1 
Dingles, the, Warwickshire, 119. 
Disraeli, 470. 

Ditchling Beacon, Brighton, ; 
Ditton, 178 
Do, Mary, tomb. Beaulieu Abbey, 504, 

505. 
Dockyard, Plymouth, 438. 
Dolgelly, 46.' 
1 lolwyddelan, 42. 
Don River. 270. 
Donington Hall, 109. 
Doone Glen. 443. 
Dorcliingcs, 499. 
Dore. May. tomb, Beaulieu Abbey, 

504. 
Dore River, 369, 370. 
Dorking, 403. 409. 
Dorking, Battle of. 471. 
Dorking fowls. 470. 

shire, 413. 
Double Cube-room. Wilton, 393. 
Douglas, death, 320. 
Dour River, 4 
Dove Holes, 87 

Dovecote. Holmwood Park, 401. 
Dovedale, 86. 
Dover, 484, 48b. 4S7. 
1 a-tie. 480. 
River, 47. 
l'i maid-. Great and Little, 362. 
Dow lands landslip, 42; 
Downing College, Cambridge, 248. 
Downing Street, London, 197. 
1 '■ \\ 1.-. the, 486, 
Downton Castle, 100. 
Drake, Sir Francis, 4; >, 
Drawing Room, K\ nance. 45S. 
Drayton, Michael, 302 
Drayton, poet, 522 
Drummond, Henrj , 466 
Dubrae River, 486. 

Dudley, Dukeol Northumberland, 477. 
Dudley, Earl of Lei ester, 123. 141. 
I »ugd lie, 104. 

Duke ^'( Cornwall Harbor, 452 
Duke of Wellington Flagship, 511. 
Dukeries, the, 270. 
Dukesborough, 343 
i lull- River, 370. 
Dunciad, The, 409. 
Dunford 1 louse, 495. 
Dungeness Lighthouse, 4S0. 
Dunhebn, 314. 

Dunkery lie. icon. Exmoor, 442. 
Dunstan, Abbot oi Glastonbury, 406. 
Dunster, 441. 

Dun-tei Castle, Siege, 441. 
Dupplin, Lady Bettv, 3^8. 
Durham, 312. 



INDEX. 



5^7 



Durham, Bishop of, 508. 
Durham Castle, 314, 318. 
I turham Cathedral, 314. 
Durham, Earls of, 314, 320. 
1 turovernum, 482. 
Dwr River, 486. 
Dyer, 3S3. 
Dyfi River, 352. 

Eadwine, King, 295, 297. 

Eadwine's Tomb, 310. 

K igle and Child, 20. 

Eagle Honour Castle, 489. 

Eagle Rock, 85. 

Eagle Tower, 77. 

Karl Hugh's Tower, Alnwick, 328. 

Earl's Drive, 92. 

Kail's Park, Wilton, 31)2. 

Easl>y Abbey, 204. 

East Cow, Isle of Wight, 514. 

East Lyn River, 445. 

Eaton Hall, 26, 32. 

Eaton Square, London, 214. 

Ebbsfleet, 4S6. 

Eboracum, 294. 

Ehrane, King, 295. 

Eddystone Lighthouse, 238, 439. 

K'lciiinm Vale, 28. 

Eden River, 477. 

Edgar, King, 395. 

Edgar Tower, Worcester, 349. 

Edgecot, 114. 

Edgecumbe, Mount, 439. 

Edgehill Battle, 160. 

Edgehill Battlefield, 113. 

Edial, 104. 

Edmund, King, 405. 

Edward, King, 415. 

Edward I., 368, 489. 

Edward II., 307, 376, 381. 

Edward II. 's murder, 340. 

Edward II. 's Shrine, 339, 341. 

Edward III., 174. 

Edward IV., 296. 

Edward IV. s Chapel, Wakefield, 2S2. 

Edward VI., 230. 

Edward the Black Prince, 161. 

Edward, Black Prince, tomb, Canter- 
bury, 482. 

Edward the Confessor's Chapel, West- 
minster, 188. 

Eel-Pie Island, 178. 

Egbert, King, 273. 

Egyptian Hall, London, 210. 

Kldon, Chancellor, 41 8. 

Kid, ,n. Karl of, 138. 

Eleanor of Aquitatue's Tomb, Beau- 
lieu Abbey, 504. 

Eleanor, Queen, 63, 142, 155. 

Elford the Royalist, 435. 

Eliseg's Pillar, 29. 

Eiizabeth Castle, 422. 

Elizabeth, Princess, 520. 

Elizabeth's Tomb, Newport, 520. 

Elizabeth, Queen, 139, 161, 230, 252, 

474- 
Khz ibeth's Court, 220. 
I ibeth s I lefiance, 222 
Elkington, Messrs., 120. 
Ellesmere Canal, jo. 



Elstow, Bedford, 130. 
Elswick, 321. 
Ellon, 127. 
Ely, 404 

Ely ( lathedral, 251. 
Ely, Isle of, 251. 
Ely River, 375. 
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 169. 
Emma, Queen, 404. 
Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 24S. 
Emperoi Fountain, 84, 
Kim ombe, 418. 
Endsleigh, 440. 
Endymion, 471. 
English Bickner, 361. 
Epping Forest, 219. 
Epsom Races, 472. 
Epsom Salt-., 472. 
Erasmus' Court, Cambridge, 245. 
Eric, 361. 
Ernie River, 432. 
Ermine Street, Lincoln, 266. 
Ermine Street Road, 337. 
Krnisius, 372. 

Erpingham, Sir Thomas, 257. 
E-k River, 310. 
Essex, 234. 

Essex. Kails of, 91, 113, 2^, 437. 
Ethelbald, 256. 
Ethelbert, King, 22b. 
Ethelfleda, 120. 
Eton College, 172. 
Kurydice wrecked, 516. 
Euston Square Station, London, 21s. 
Evelyn, John, 466, 471. 
Evelyn's Diary, 471. 
Kvenlode River, 140. 
Evergreen Drive, Woburn, 134. 
Evershed Rough, Wotton, 472. 
Ewer, Colonel, 369. 
Ewias, Harold, 309. 
] Ewiasvale, 372. 
Ewloe Castle, 27, 
K\ iik caster. 425. 
Exchequer Gate, Lincoln, 263. 
Exe River, 424, 504. 
Exeter. 425. 

Exeter Cathedral, 425. 426. 
Exeter College, Oxford, 153. 
Exeter. Eail of, 2.(12. 
Exeter Gardens, Oxford, 149. 
Exeter, Marquis of. 261. 
Exmoor, 407, 440, 447. 
Exmouth, 424. 
Eynsham, 100. 

Faerie Queenk, 432. 

Fair Rosamond, 142. 

Fair Rosamond's birthplace, 353. 

Fair Rosamond's coffin, 100. 

Fairfax, Lord, 116, 364. 

Falkland. Lord, 474. 

Falmouth, 454. 

Falmouth Harbor, 453. 

Falstaff Inn, Canterbury. 482. 

Falstaff, Sn [ohn, 200. 

Famborough, 407. 

Fame, 313.335. 

Karringlord, 520. 

Fawkes, Guy, 128, ^03. 



Feathers Inn, 99. 

fell. Dean. 168. 

Fenland, 134, 249. 

Id rars Abbey, 91. 

Fei rars, Eai 1, 108. 

I rv, r ham, Kurd, 410. 

Field of the Dead, too. 

Fiennes, John de, 484. 

Finch, Lord Chancellor, 200. 

Finger Pillory, 109. 

Fire Monument, London, 1S0. 

Fish Street Hill, London, 181. 

Fishes, Brighton Aquarium, 402. 

Fitzalan, Richard, 404. 

Kii/al hi-' tombs, Ai ttndel, 403. 

Fitzgilbert, Richard, 475. 

Fitzhanem, Robert, 343, 375. 

Fitzosboi 11c. 368, 512, 519. 

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 246. 

Fitzwilliam, Viscount, 246. 

Five Sisters' Window, York, 300. 

Flambard, Bishop of Durham, 508. 

Flamborough I lead, 307. 

Fleet Ditch, 409. 

Meet Estuary, 419. 

Flemings, 474. 

Flemyng, Richard, 153. 

Flint Castle, 33. 

Flintshire, 31, 33. 

Floating Island, 60. 

Flodden, Battle, 319, 331, 334. 

I'lucllen, 364. 

Folkestone, 484, 487. 

lolly Bridge, Thames, 168. 

Fonthill Abbey, 396. 

lord Castle. 331. 

I jn ( MVice, London, 198. 

foreland, 1 lorset, 4 17. 
Foreland, Isle of Wight, 516. 
Forest Minstrel, 88. 
Forest of Dean, 337. 300. 361, J65. 
Forfarshire wreck. 330. 
F'ors Noddyn, 42. 
bolster. Anthony, 141 
Fort George, Guernsey, 423. 
foil Pitt. Chatham. 480. 
Foss River, 301. 
Fosse Dyke Canal. 263. 
Foston-le (.'lay, 307. 
Fotheringhay, 127. 
Fountains Abbey, 289. 
Fountain Dale, 273. 
Fountains I tale, 290. . 
Fountains Hall, 293. 
Fowey, 453. 
Fowey Pier, 452. 
Fowls, Dorking, 470. 
Fox and Hounds, Box Hill, 471. 
Fox, Bishop, 146, 263. 
j Fox, Charles James, 217. 
Fox, George, 301, 308. 
lox, Henry Vassal, 21 7. 
Freshwater, 520. 

Freshwatei (late, [sle of Wight, 51S. 
Freshwater Peninsula, 520. 
Friar Tuck, 273. 
Friar's Crag, 66. 
Friar's Heel, Stonehenge, 391. 
I 11.11 . the, Winchelsea, 489. 
briar's Tower, the, 168. 



S28 



/.X/'E.Y. 



Frome Rivci 
Furness, 5°- 
Furness Abbey, 56. 

Gad's Hii l, 4S0. 

Gainsborough, 119. 

ee, Durham, 314. 
Gallantry Bower. Clovelly, 451. 
Garrick, David. 104. 119. 17S. 
Garter, Order of. 175, 507. 
Garway Hill, 372. 
Gates, Sir John, 404. 
Gaunt, John of, 12 ; 
Gaveston, Piers, 

Gee. Sir William, tomb, York, 3J 1 
Geoffrey of Monmouth, 363. 
George II., portrait, 236. 

. , hi., 263, 339, 419. 

George IV., 465. 4 ii 

ge Inn, Glaslonbuiy, 407. 

ge Inn. Stamford, 2O3. 
Ghosts, 136. 

Giant'- Hole. Bristol, 401. 
Gillkicker Point, Portsmouth Harbor, 

510. 
Gillott's steel pens, 126. 
Gilpin. John, 214. 
Gilpin. Rev. W . 505 
Gladstone, William E . 27, 133. 
Glamorganshire. 375. 370. 
Glastonbury Abbey. 407. 
Gleawecesore, 338. 
Glen lower, Owen, 47. 93, 207. 346. 
Glendower's Seat, 2S. 
Glevum, 337. 
Gloucester, 337. 
Gloucester Cathedral, 340. 
Gloucester, Dukes of, 220. 520. 
Gloucester, Duke of, tomb, 22S. 
Gloucester Siege, 
Gloucester Spa, 342. 
Gloucestershire. 137. 
Glyme River, 163. 
Goblin Tower. 25. 
Godevic de Winchcomb, 360. 
Godiva, Lady. 104. 
God's Providence House, Chester, 22. 
Godstow Nunnery. 142. 
Godwine, Earl, 464, 493 
Golden Cap, Lyme Regis, 424. 
Golden Gallery. St. Paul'-., 1S4. 
Golden Gates, Woburn, 134. 
Golden Grove, 382. 
Golden Tower, Richmond, 294. 
Golden Valley. 369. 
Goldstone, Prior, 48] 
Golgotha, Cambridge, 244. 
Gonville and Caius O illege,( lambridge, 

243- 
Goodrich Castle and Court, 360. 
( ioodrich Priory, 360. 
Goodwin Sands, 479, 486 
Goodwood races, 495. 
Goose fair, Nottingham, 208. 
Gormund, 138. 
Goring, 170. 
Goring, Charles, 492. 
Goring, Lord, 408. 
I ."iing, Rev. John, 4.12 
Gosport, 510. 



Goudhurst, 474. 
Gower, Hem \ de, 377. 

Dai ling's Monument, 336, 
Grace Dieu Abbey, 109. 

Grand Trunk Canal. 52. 

Grange. 63 

Grantham, 263. 

( rranville, Earl, 472. 

Granville, Richard de, 381, 

1 iravesend, '22. 

Graveyards, the, 116. 

Gray's Inn, London. 210. 

Great and Little Hangman, Combe 

Martin, 44S. 
Great Doward, 362. 
Great Fire, London. 1S0. 
(ireat Hall, Luinley Castle, 320. 
Great Hampden, 135. 
Great Malvern, 351. 
Great North Road, 273. 
Great Orme's Head, 40. 
Great Park, Windsor, 176. 
( beat Paul. bell. IS;. 
Great St. Mary's Church, Cam iridge, 

^44- 
Great Tom, Lincoln, 264. 
Great Western Railway. 383, 386 
Greatham Church, 40S, 499. 
Green Dragon Inn, Worcester, 550. 
Green Park. London, 20(1. 
Greenaleigh Headland, Exmnor, 411 
Greenwich. 22Q. 
Grenofen, 436. 
Grenovicum, 220. 
Grenville. Richard, 134. 
Greta Hall, 67. 
Greta River, 07. 

Grevilles, Earls of Warwick. 120. 
Grey, 1 .ady fane. 1 1 1. 
Grey. Sii John, 1 10. 
Groby, 10S. 
tiros, William le, 307. 
Grosmont Castle, 372. 
Grosvenor Square, London, 214. 
Grouville Bay, 423. 
Guernsey, 421. 423. 
Guesten Hall, Worcester. 340. 
Guestling Brook, Sandwich, 4S5. 
Guild Hall. Exeter, (2^ 
Guildhall, Norwich, 26 1 
Guildford, 463. 464. 
( iuiordano, 262. 
Gun Wharf, ( Chatham, 480. 
Gunpowdei Plot, 12S. 320. 
Guthlac, 253 
1 ruthram, 412. 
Guttled the Dane, 60. 
( iiiy oi Warwick, 121. 
t luy's Cliff, Warwickshire, 121. 
Guy's Tower, Warwick Castle, 121. 
1 Iwydyr House, 43. 
Gwynne, Nell, 237, 405. 
Gwynue, Nell, birthplace, Hereford, 

354- 

H vcket, Bishop, 103. 
Haddon Hall, 76. 
Hailsham, 490. 

I [aldon I lib-. Ex nth, 424. 

Hall. Elizabeth, 11 



Hallam Manor, 281 

Halle. John, 388, 

Haltwhistle, Hexham, 322. 

Hammond'- Ford, Alne River. 324. 

Hamoaze, the, Tam.u River, 437, 438, 

Hampden, John, I35. 

Hampshire, 467, 405. 513. 514. 

Hampton Court, 17S. 

Hanger, Selborne, 495. 

Hansom cabs, 403. 

Happy Valley, [1 18. 

Harcourl family. 140. 

Harcourt, Lord, 156. 

1 [ardi Canute, 346. 

Hardwicke Hall, 72. 

Harlech Castle, 49. 

Harold, Ring. 25, 295. 370,464. 

Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland, 90. 

Harrison. John, 285. 

1 [arrow School, 224. 

i lai 1 v Hereford, 362. 

Harry Monmouth. 362. 

Haitian 1 Point. Devon. 451. 

Harwich. 238. 

Haslar Hospital, Gosport, 512. 

Hastings, 484. 489. 

Hastings Castle, 4S0. 

Hastings, Lord, 109. 

Hasting-. Marquis of, 1 10. 

Hastings. Warren, 170. 

Hatfield. Bishop. 318. 

Hatfield House, 230. 

Hathaway, Anne, 119. 

Hathaway, Anne, cottage. 119. 

Hatton, Anne. 423. 

Hatton, Sir Christopher, 128,423. 

I [averfordwest, 382. 

Hawarden Castle, 27. 

Hay Castle, 333. 

Hay Park, 99, 

Hayes Barton, 424. 

Sir Jame-, 474. 
lb 1 iai Hill, Isle of Wight, 514. 
Heath flowers, Cornwall, 456. 

I [eber, Bishop, 32. 
Heights of Abraham, 86, 

I I ford River, 453. 
Helston, 454. 
Hemp, 44S. 
Hengist, 386. 

1 [engist and Hor-a. (So 

I Iengi-tbiny Head. 507. 

1 [1 ngrave I bill. 250. 

I b nb. v Reach, 171. 

Henry 1 1.. 142. 

Henry II. 's pen tin e, < 'anterbury, 482. 

Henry HI., 348, 387. 

Henry I\., tomb, Canterbury, 482. 

Henry V., birthplai e, 302 

Henry VI., birthplace, 17s. 

Henry VII., 506. 

Henry VII.'s Chapel, Westminster, 

1S6, 188. 
Henry VIII., 477, 510. 
Henry VIII., tomb, 177. 
Henry Beauclerc, 167, 239. 
Henry Beauclerc's death, 342. 
Henry of Monmouth, 372. 
Herbert. George. 394. 
Herbert, Lord, 159. 



i.xm \ 



5 2' j 



I [erhert, I ord "I I rea, 19 | 
Hei berl, Sidney, 388, )9 1 
Hei bei t, Sir William, jg i 
I [erbert's Statue, Pall \l ill, 213 
Hi reford, 35.3. 
Hen ford ' ithedral, 35 1 
Hereford, Earl of, 568, 512. 
Hereford, 1 [arry, 362. 

Hereford hiri Be 351. 

I In ne the I [unter, 177. 

II Lady, 531, 333. 

I [e , Sii William, 331. 

Heronry, Vinney Ridge, 504. 
Hertford, Earl of, 230. 

I lertford hue, 224. 
Hervey, 115. 

Hei tie, 477. 

Hexham, 314, 322. 

High Down, Isle of Wight, 513, 521. 
lli^h Level Bridge over Tyne, 321. 
lli^h Peak, Sidmouth, 424. 

II gh tor, 85. 

lli^h Town, I [ereford, 354. 

Hill Tower, Dunster, 441. 

Hill, William, sexton, 255. 

Hilda, 310. 

Hi jborough, 44S. 

Hindei kell Ca lie, 305. 

Iln.irc, Sir Ri( hard, 391. 

Hobs, Rul.i-n, 131. 

Hobson, Ailiinv.il, 51S. 

1 1-.!/ mi's Choice, 2 1 

Hol>son's Conduit, Cambridge, 248. 

Hock Tuesday, 123. 

Hodder River, 57. 

Hodeni River, 372. 

Hoc, the, Plymouth, 439. 

Hog's B 11 1:, Guildford, \6 1 

Holbein, 392. 

Hoi ;ate, 303. 

Holland, Earl of, 217. 

Holland I louse, 216. 

Holland the regicide, 135. 

Holmby House, 128. 

I [olme, Randall, 22. 

1 1'i.iii 'li!', S y, 473. 

I lollllW 1 'O' I. ,\<><J. 

Huh, 31. 

Holt, Chief-Ju n e, 169 

Ilolte, Sir I lioni 1 ., 1 26. 

Holy Me, 335. 

Hoi) 1 [eadiand, 461. 

Holy Mountain, 371. 

Holy 'runny Chun li, I lull, 27.S. 

Holy Trinity Church, Stratford, 119. 

Holy Trinity Church, Ventnor, 518. 

Holy Well, Malvern, 352. 

Holy Well, Southwell, 269. 

I Iolylie.nl, 33, 50. 

Holywell, 35. 

I Lome, 1 .11 1 "I, 3 14. 

Hood, Robin, 20s 270. 

I look, I heodore, 17.S. 

lloole I [ouse, 27. 

Hooker, Richard, 1 '.9. 

I looper, |oliu, hi ;hop, 341. 

I [ope Castle, 34. 

Hope, II. T., 470. 

Hopi No 1 . 430. 

I loi ,■ Guards, Whitehall, 197. 

67 



II" "."Hi. 47 v 

I lurln nlliil 1 I . inl'ii , I .oreloll, 2oS. 

I loll 505. 

Hi! ry-ma ing, 207. 
Il"i pur, 93, [26, ; 7. ,i 
Hoi I'm ' . I h.in , Ainu ick, 
I lol >pur' i Tomb, VorU, 300. 
I I 1 ton, Lord, ; 6 

I Ion e ol 1 

Hou ol Delight, iwich, 221. 

House ol Peei , 203. 

I louses ol I *. 1 1 liament, juj. 

II 1 1 tie, 67. 

I [oward ' a t le, $0 ; 

I [oh .oil, II' ii' ; . 1 , 1. 

I [oward, I ."ol of Effingham, 452. 

I [oward, Lord Thoma , 234, , 

I low .ml, 1 ,ord William, 69, | 

I low ard ' tomb , A lei, 49 , 

1 1. .urn Fori ■■/ Min lr> ' 

1 low hum, 306. 

Hudibrm 9 

Hud "ii. railway king, birthplai ; : 1 

it ol Avelon, Bi shop, 264. 

iiuii, 277. 

Hull, Mr., 468 

I Lull Rivi 1, 277. 

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 • l'i iory, .Alii ■ i' , 530. 

I [umbei l:i .•■' . 75, 277. 

Humbleton 1 1 129. 

1 1 Ired Men's I lull, Winchester, 

500. 

SI 1 "lull, I 2S. 

Huntley, Earl of, 334. 
Hurst Castle, 513, 520. 

1 lin ii""! c ( ' le, 4 

11' ' is 52. 

I Imi villagi . im 
I [yde l'n I. ' ornei , 206. 
I [yde I'M I.. London, 205. 
1 1 1st, Chi er, 24. 

1 I I- 1. l s 7- 

Ida, Kim;, 335. 
[dris's chair, 45. 
llll'V, 157. 

I ion, 1 1 ". nl ap, 49. 

I "I .nlier, 374. 

Ikli>, 460. 

1 1- li" in' istle, 424. 
l'i" ter, I. nl ol, 420. 
I Ifrai ombe, 447, 11 
llkley, 2S5. 
In. 1, Kino, 401, 413. 

I Rock, 92. 

Iinn'1 I emple, London, 210, 

I II ONI I, I ."ll'l'ill, 2IO. 

Ireton, ' ol ), 116, 1 39. 

I dll , ;il, 312, 321 ,, 

Iron ore, 310. 

I". 11 .nl' ,117, 296 

I I well River, 52. 
[sea, 425. 

[si 1 er, I46, 

Isle of Athelney, 412. 

I le of Avelon, 407. 

I li,". 220 

Isle ol Purbeck, 415. 

I ile ol Si Nil holat . 438. 

Isle of Thanet, 4X3. 



I" "I \\ ight, v 17, ; 1 ■ 
ti Inn River, 499, 
'vanhoti 109 

' lie, 423. 

'•.' 1. 1 III ' .: . 1 1 11 1 I I I'.o 

I 1 1 1 " ! I '. 1 1 1. 452. 

in - II , .. [50,40 

"" I "I . 1. 176. 

it I V. ol Scotlan , ,i 
in' I . P, R , 474. 
nn Ridd' in 1 444. 
1 1 1 1 , 1 1 1 - Dai ry m n 1 1 tighter, 515. 

'.''. M " 1 1 ' 1 - 1 y , } r 7 . 

, "ii I hoi M 'l'i "ii . 470. 
ii" |'" Igi , 1 I ' 1 .0 

■I'll "nl ngton, 121. 

1 ' ' , I 'I |22. 
' 11 I, 32I. 

'i College, < tmbridgi I 1 I 
- " College, ( 1 lord, 153. 
et, (io 

ewel, Bishop fcsbury, 4 \&. 
ewel House, 1 ow ei of London, 192. 
ewiy Wall, ill. 

II. ,1 .on oln, 266. 

■■ I , Yorl ,01. 

"in ol . tomb, I iterburv, 

482. 
oan nl 1 1 ■ - [90. 

" I: . 40 ■ |" |. 
ohn, King, 273, 325, 377, :r 
olin. King, signs Magna ' harta 1 77 

"In. 1 . 11 ', to mi.. U iter, ; j * j , ; )■■.. 

ohn "l 1 . nun, 58, ',1 . 

ohn ol II' p -22. 

.1 Kent, 372 

ohn of Monmouth, |6 

in, l)r. Samuel, 26, 10 J, 1 ', (. 
on on, 1;. 11. 74, 477. 
"" , [ni 1, 421. 
osejih of Ai iiu ile 1, )'.; 
"'.■', ' "ii"', 128. 

1 1 lie, 433. 

I - lower, I ■ ' , 22. 



1 1 , I lead in ' i' 1 ol Eton, 173. 
Ki 1,171 

e College, Oxford, 144, 154. 
,ii. 
Ken, Thomas, Bishop, 405, 520. 

Bishop, 1 01 ,520. 

! ' le, 67. 

. 011I1, 141. 
Kenilwoi th C le, 122. 
I ., I",' 1 River, 171. 
1 . 1 ..... 

474- 
Kent, Duke of, 424. 
Kentcliurch, 372. 
1 . .'. 1 1. . 65, 

Ketlel Hall, Oxford, 154. 
Keyli ni, Poin I" i , 

Kidder, Bis hop, 404. 
Kilmarth Mountain, 453. 
Kilndown, 474. 
Kilpeck, 371. 
Kimmericlge Vale, 1 1 
Kindei Fall, 70. 
Kinderscout, 70. 



53° 



INDEX. 



Kineton, 115. 

King VII d's White H 

. 452. 
King Arthur's Round I 
K ig Arthur's Round Table, N< 

King F 

King Monmouth. 410. 4 
King of Isle of Wight, 513. 
King o( the Pea'.. 

- Arms Inn. l.anca-:c;. 59. 

- Chapel, Cambridge, -44. 
King's College, Cambridge, 244. 

241. 
King'- 1 i Ige, 240. 

King- II ill, 1 ixfoi i. 149. 
King's Head Inn, 1 1 >. 
King's Manor, Guildford. 404. 
King'> Parade, Cs . 244. 

. iley, Ch irles, 33, 440. 451. 
Kingston, 178 

rston-upon Hull, 277. 

Kirke, Colonel, 412. 

Kirke's Lambs, 41 2. 

Kirkgate Church, I . 285 

Kirkgate, Wakefi - ; 

Kirkham 1' 

Kitchen, Vb inbury, 40S. 

Knebworth, 233. 

Knole, 4"^ 

Knott Mill, 53 

Knowsley Hall, 20. 

Koh-i-noor Diamond, 192. 

Kymin Hill, 304. 

Kynance Cove, 457. 

Kyrle, John, 

Kvtson. Sir Thomas, .'50. 

LABI) 1 1FKI . M MOK, 47I. 

I aeon . :" 

Lacy, William de, 372 

Ladies ol the Vale, 100. 

Lady Chapel, Winchester, 500. 

Lady of Caversham, t ~ 

Lady Well, S 

Laira Estuary, Plym River. 437. 

Lake Country, 04. 

Lamb Row. Chester, 22. 

Lamberhurst, 475. 

Banstead, 47 ,. 
Lambeth Bridge, 27;. 
Lambeth Palace, 194. 
Lambton Castle, 320. 
Lampreys, U2. 
Lancashire, 51. 
Lancaster Castle, 58 
l.anca-ter, Duke- of, t 12. 
Landor, Wal r S 373-378 

Landport. 510. 
Land's End, 45 ;. 402. 

low ne Hill, Bath, 
Landslip. Isle of Wight, 518. 
Lanfranc. Archbishop, 481, 

I .1 10. 

Langport, 409. 
Langton, Archbishop, tomb, 

bui \ . 482. 
Languard Fort. Harwich, 23S. 



Latimer. Bishop, 

Launcelot oi the Lake. 52 

Launceston Castle. 452. 

Law 

I 

Lea Hall. 27. 

I lines, 407. 

I 'unhridge, 4; 
Learn River. 121. 
Leamington. 121. 
Lebanon, cedars ol 
Leche River, 140. 

lade, 140. 
Leconl 

• . 2S3 
Leeds Castle. 47S 
Leeta Monastery, 283 

-.er, III. 
Leicester. Karl of. 112. 12;. 141. 
Leicester Hospital, Warwick. 122. 

-hue, 106. 
Leigh Wood--. Bristol, 400. 
Leighton, Sir Frederick, 
Leith Hill. 407. 40S 
Leith Hill Place, | 
Lennox. Earl of. 334. 
Leo X., P 
1 eofric, 
L'Espec, Sir Walter. 306. 

I, Sir John, So. 
Leveson 1 low 1 rs, thi s 
1 ewellj n. 178. 

Park, 362. 
Lichfield Cathedral, 200. 

. 102. 
Lincoln. 

Lincoln. Bishop of, 140, 153. 
Lincoln Castle, 200. 
Lincoln Cathedral, 20;. 
Lincoln College, Oxford, 153. 

210. 
Lincoln's Inn, London, 210. 
Lincolnshire, 240. 
1 indisfarne, 313, 535. 
1 indsay, Lord, 1 15. 
Lindum, 20 j. 

n, S11 Richard. 360. 
1 ion Rock, Kynance, 450, 458. 
I ion's Den, Lizard, 450. 
1 isk< ..■ i. 453. 

Lisle. Alice. 500 

L' Isle, B 1 . 1 - - 
Little I toward, ;>■ ! 
Little Malvern. 351. 
Little': , ,238 
Liulph the Savon, 320. 
Living ne relics, 273. 
1 l\ ei is ol, I 7. 
I Peninsula, 45 ; 

Lizard Point. 458. 

Power, 
Llandaff, 375, 
Llangollen \ illi \ . 28 
1 J72. 

1 1.111! \\ -I, 43, 

Llanthony Priory, 
Llanthon) ! 
Lledr Ri\ er, 42 

Llcw 1 
Lloyd'-, 1 



Lloyd's Palace, Bishop, Chesti 

Llugwy River. 4.;. 
I lyrinam River. 352. 

■ 1, 1 79. 
Lodden River, 171. 
Lodore Falls. 65. 
I . - ■. w un, 72 

Rock, I and's End, 402. 
I.oidis. 2S3 

Lollards' Dungeon, Chicheste 
Lollards' lower. Lambeth, 194. 
Londinium, 1 79 
London, 179. 

London B Ige, lorba) . 431. 

London Stone. 177. 1 
London Tavern, 211 

; \s- 
Long 1 1 m, 17s 

g Reach, Cambridge, 240. 
1 ong Valley, Aldershot, 407. 

Long Walk, Windsor. 170. 
Longiicid, East Sheen, Surrey, 473. 
Longships, Land's End, 462. 
I ong-tone Island. ; [6 
■ . ;" 2 
tool. Lizard, 453, 450. 
I oid's Island, 66. 
Lorna I loone, 443, 
I owl. I ird, 165 
I overs' Walk, S ■ 

. J lines Russell, tSo. 
1 udgate I liil. London. 182, 
1 udlovv Castle. 07. 
Lulworth r'ove. 418 
I iniilcy Castle, ; 
I.undy P. and. ( , 1 
I une Rii 1 1 . 58. 
1 ,upus, 1 lugii. 10S 

t, 460. 
I \ '1 Roci. ( 1 , - 
1 id Castle, 1 

l.vra River. 424. 
Lyme Regis. 424. 
Lymington, 51 16 
Lymington Rivet 
Lyn River. 441. 443, 444. 
444- 

urst, 501 

■ nth. 444. 
224. 
I.ytton, Lord, 233. 



n 



172, 373 
Gloucester 



,s ,. 

20S. 



o4° 



M \. Ml VY, T 

Machno River, 42. 

-'"• 4.v 
Madonie, 506. 
Maentv 1 1 ig, 48 
Magdalen College, Oxford, 14S 

Magdalen Wall,-, Oxford, 140. 
Magdalene College, Cambridge 
Magna Ch ma. 325. 
Magna Cluita Island, 177. 

us, Thomas, 275. 
Maidenhead, 171. 
Maidstone, 474. 

Main Ben< h, Lie of Wight, sir). 
Malcolm 111.. 323. 
Malcolm'- Weil, Alnwick, 524. 
Mallard, the, 147. 



10, 2:1. 



24S. 



INDEX. 



531 



Mall Shovel Inn, 122. 
Malthus, .171. 
Malvern Hills, 337, 350. 
Malvern Link, 351. 
Malvern Priory, 351. 
Malvern Wells, 351. 

Malv. I < la tie, 503. 

M mi. Isle of, 59. 
Man of Ross, 355. 
Man of- War < love, 418. 
Man-of-War Rock, Lizard, 458. 
M.111. hester, ^j. 
Manchestei 1 iathedral, 54. 
Mm. unium, 52. 
Manners, John, 7S. 
Manners, Sir ( ieorge, 80. 
Manners, Thomas, 106. 
Manorbeer Castle, 3S2. 

Mansfield, 73. 

Mm i..n I [on '■. London, 209. 

M mthe Doog, 63. 
Manvers, Earl of, 270. 

Mapledurham, 170. 

Marble Arch, Hyde Park, 199. 

Margate, 483. 

M irgaret, Countess of Richmond, 241. 

Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, 508. 

Margarel ol Anion, 246. 

M u 1 iret, ', in, 230, 24S, 282. 

\1 n in.- Parade, Brighton, 491. 

M ni . 1 Bos worth, 1 13. 

Market eiosses, 279, 494. 

Market Harborough, 116. 

Market Inn, Bridgwater, 40.1. 

Marlborough Column, Blenheim, 10 ; 

Marlb ugh, Duchess of, 161. 

M irlborough, Duke of, 162, 304, 411. 

Marlborough House, London, 200, 
214. 

M. mm. m, 0<i. .'|1. iiv 

Man|iiis of Granby, Dorkin [, 1'". 

M 11 .ion Moor, 296 

M ,1 nn, Henry, regicide, y>: ■ 

Martin of Tom-, 447. 

Martin the lunatii , 299 

Martin Tower, London, 192. 

Mai ti 1. W j ! ' ham, 47l*>- 

Martindale Hall, 77. 

\1 „k 1 ' Mi morial, 1 Ixford, 156. 

Mary, Queen, -'48. 

M I, v. Queen, married, 500. 

\l „ v . '.in. ■ 11 ol Scot -. 73. 01. 

M.i, v, Queen •.! Si "i-, bower, 82. 

Mary, Queen .'I Si ots, death, 128. 

Masque oj ' 'emus, 98. 

Ma 1. r 1 ..mi. 1 lambridge, 241. 

M 1 i.i's Lodge, t lambridge, 240. 

Matlock, 85. 

Maud's Chapel, Oxford, 155. 

Muni. Empress. 56, 519. 

M mill erei ■. 286. 

Mawddach River, 44. 

M lyflower, He-, 437- 

Medina River, S'4, 5'9- 

Medlock River, 53. 

Medmenham Abbey, 171. 

Medway Riv.-r. 474, 479- 

Memorial Window, Westminster, 189 

Menai Strait, 35. 

Mendip Hills, 401, 405, 424. 



Men ery I ine, ' lanterbury, 480. 

Mereden I louse, 470. 

Met ioneth, 44. 

Merlin, 61. 

Merlin's Hill, 382. 

Mermaid's Pool, 70. 

Mi 1 ej River, 17, 70. 

Mi ii.. 11 1 ..II- [i . I Ixford, 146. 

Mi 1 ih 1 "Inn. h, Birmingh mi, 125. 

Mew River, 435, 

Mi. In Ih mi Priory, 490. 

Mi. klegate Bar, Y..il , 

Mi. I. II.- Temple, London, 210. 

Middlesex, 177. 

Middlezoy, 410. 

Midhurst, 495. 

Mildmay, Si. Walter, 248. 

Milforrl, 582. 

Milford Haven, ; 

Milford, Lord, 3S2. 

Milton, John, 98, 248, 460, 470. 

Minehead, 441. 

M instead, 502. 

Minster I ,ovel, 164, 

Minstri I.' Gallery, 428, 429. 

Minstrel Gallery, Lumley Castle, 320 

\l isert imus, tomb, 149 

Mitinii parish, S7- 

Mixed Cloth Hall. Leeds, 285. 

\|..n II. ill. Hexham, 322. 
Mob Quad, 1 Ixford, 146. 

Moberly, Bishop of Salisbury, 520. 

Mohan's Tor, Torbay, 43"- 

M.111 a. Lord, 110. 

Mold, it- 
Mole Rivet . .)"!. 468, 470. 

Molly M..;.;. 385. 

Mona Kle, 36 

Mom 1. .n Fort, Portsmouth, 51 1. 

Money ( lopse, 11 bot ne Hou <-, 515. 

Monk, < leneral, 10X. 

Monmouth, |6 - 

Monmouth, I larry, 362. 

Monmouth caps, 364. 

Monmouth, Duke of, 405, 410. 

Monmouth, John of, 562 

Monmouth, King, 505. 

Monmouth Ro id, ; 9 

Monmouthshire, 3,2. 375. 

Monnow Riv 1 , |6 ■. |l 9, 570. 

M < Irgui 1 I ' 1 dr. 423. 

Montague House, London, 212 

M. .111 tgue, Vi 1 ..mil, 47=i 

Mont fort, Simon de, 112. 12;. J46. 

M . ■ 1 1 1 • ■ ' 1 1 > < ' r v ( .1 lie, 35. 

Montgomery, Roger dr. 93, 07. 
Montreville. 270. 

\i sn n 1 1 . 478. 

More 1 ' 1 tie, |i2. 

Morel Earl of, 453. 

Morgan's Mount, 25. 
Morley, Earl of, 437- 
Morte Bay, 449. 
Morte Point, 448, 44". 
Morte Stone, I levonshire, 449. 
Morthoe, 1 11 
Morthoe Church, 448. 
M01 is.in. Elizabeth, 2 1 5. 
Mortimer, Roger, 30, -'(17. 
Mortimer's Tower, 97. 



Morton, Rom in ilia, 515. 
Mothi 1 1 inn' li "i 1 ngl i"i 1 
Motherbank, Spithead, 512. 
Mount Batten, Plymouth, 1 ,, 
Monnl Edgci mnl.. , 1 19 
M. nn Edgei mull.'. E nl "I, 1 , 

M i i.'l. I08. 

M Wi '■. Plymouth, 1 ; 

Mount' • Bay, 453. 

Mowbray, Earl "I Norttlumbi 1 1 ind, 

3 2 3- 
Moyle Court, 506, 

M 11. li Wi nl". I . 96, 
Mullyon 1 love, 1.55, 456. 

\1. ih. in-. nl .11 Tower, Vork, .vi^. 

Mumbles, Swan 1 1 Bay, 376, J79, 

Mm 1... , 1 indli 1 |0 1 

Murray's (/'/«</<•, 270. 

Mil 1 11. 1. 542. 

Million. So mil I town, 492. 

Mysteriei oj I 'dolpho, -<>. 

Nadder River, 392. 
Nailheart, John, 398. 

N.inlwieli, 27. 

\ iphtha, 369. 
\ ipier, l,i. id. .)t t 
\,i ,-l.v. Battle '.1. 1 16. 
\ , 1,, Beau, of Bath, 305. 
Nash II.. us'-. Stratford, 1 10. 
Nash, Thomas, 1 10. 

\, 1/111,1/ III /Ol r Oj Si tit "I , 495. 

\ ival Asylum. Greenwich, 221. 
Naworth < lastle, 68, 304. 
Ne .'li Abbey, 381. 

River, J76, 380. 
. the, 117. 5'9. 5 21 - 
\. I ..n. Admiral, 260. 471. 
Nelson's Column, London, 212. 
\, I ion's Tomb, 183. 
\, I mi's warship, Victory, 511. 
Netley Abbey, 510. 
Neville. Earl, |ig 
\, i ill. , M tude, 92. 
\. Mil.-. I'.i. hard, 120. 
Neville's Court, Cambt idge, 240. 
Nevilli 1 ' 1 («9- 

Cross, 1 • . |i6, 519. 

\. .1 Bridge, 140. 
New Brighton, 17. 
New Castle, ;-">- ,21. 
New < lhapel, ' lambridge, 241. 
New Chun h, Wilton, ;o| 
New I ollege, Oxford, 151. 
New I lourt, 1 lambridge, 242. 
New Forest, 41 1, 501. 
New Haven, 492. 

New Inn, ' .l-ii- ester, :,y)- 

New Palace, 235. 

Ni 11 11 1. '-. Stratford, 1 18, 119. 

New Work, the, 273. 

Newark, 273. 

Newark Church, 274, 276. 

Newarke Hospital, I eii ester, 112. 

\, ,i, iil,. Duke of, 267, 270, 271. 

Ni 1 ' a tli . Earl of, 74. 

1 il.- I I '. London, 2IO. 

Newcastle undei Lyme, 89. 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 320. 
Ncwland, John, 398. 



532 



IXDEX. 



Newport, 237, 375, 514, 519. 

Newport Gate, Lincoln, 266. 

Newstead Abbey, 273. 

Newton, Abbot, 426. 

Newton, Isaac, 203. 

Newton's Tele-cope, Cambridge, 241. 

Ne« ton's Tomb, 189. 

Newtown Linford, 108. 

Nicholas, Czar, S4. 

Nickleby, Nicholas, 263 

Nidum, 381. 

Nine Altars' Chapel, Durham, 316, 

3'9- 
Nine Altars' Chapel, Fountains Abbey, 

292. 
Niton, 518. 
Nore, the, 223. 
N01 folk, 249. 
Norfolk, Duke of, 234, 2S1, 304, 365, 

493- 
Norham Siege, 333. 
Norris Castle, 515. 
North Bar, Beverley, 27S. 
North Barrnle, 59. 
North Foreland Lighthouse, 4S3. 
North Hill, Malvern, 351. 
North Malvern, 351. 
North Sea, 223, 238. 307, 335. 
Northamptonshire, 127. 
Northern University, Durham, 319. 
Northumberland, Dukes of, 321, 325. 

477- 
Northumberland, Earls of, 323, 326. 
Northumberland, Elizabeth, Duchess 

of, 3 2 4- 
Noi thumbria, 295. 
Northumbria Westminster, 310. 
Norwich, 256. 
Norwich Castle, 257, 260. 
Norwich Cathedral, 257. 
Nottingham, 266. 
Nuneham Park, 156. 

Oak Meadow, Ross, 359. 

Oak, Queen Elizabeth's, 231. 

Oakley Park, 138. 

Oaks Day, Epsom, 473. 

Oare, 443. 

Oare Valley, 443. 

Old King's Head Inn, Dorking, 469. 

Obelisk, Castle Howard, 304. 

Observatory, Greenwich, 221. 

Ocellum Promontorium, 307. 

Octagon Tower, Studley Royal, 290. 

Odo, Archbishop, 289. 

Offa, King, 220, 395. 

Offa's Dyke and Chair, 365. 

Okehampton, 432. 

Old Lizard Head, 458. 

Old Peter, bell, York, 299. 

Old Sarum. 3S7, 3S9, 413. 

Old Tabard Inn, London, 216. 

Old Tom, I Ixford, 145. 

Oldcastle, Sir John, 372. 

Oldmixon, John, 409. 

Ollerton, 270. 

1 (rder of the darter, 175. 

Ordulph, 439. 

< >rgarius, 4^0. 

Oriel College, Oxford, 147. 



Orrest Head, 04. 

( hwell River, 238. 

Osborne House, Isle of Wight, 514, 

Osengal Hill, Ramsgate, 4S3. 

Osric, 33S, 341. 

( Mvald, Bishop, 347. 

Oswy's tomb, 310. 

Otterbourn Battle, 329. 

Ouse River, 129, 252, 288, 294, 298. 

Ousenford, 142. 

Overton, 31. 

Owens College, Manchester, 54. 

Oxford, 142. 

Oxfordshire, 140. 

Oystermouth Castle, 379. 

Oysters, 486. 

Painted Hai.l, Greenwich, 221. 

Palace of Justice, London, 211. 

Palace of the Peak, Si. 

Palmer's Guild, 99. 

Pang River, 1 70. 

Pangbourne, 170. 

Parliament House, Dolgelly, 47. 

Parliament, Houses of, 202. 

Parlor. Kynance, 458. 

Parr, Queen Catherine, 67, 139. 

Parrett River, 40S, 410. 

Parson and Clerk, Dawlish, 430. 

Paterson, William, 209. 

Paul, Great, bell, 1*3. 

Paulinus, 269. 

Paul's Walk, London. 1S1. 

Paxton, Sir Joseph, 85. 

Peace of Cuthbert, Durham, 315. 

Peacock Inn, 81. 

Peak of Derby-hire. 70. 

Peel, Sir Robert, 91. 

Peele Castle, 62. 

Peeping Tom. 104. 

Pegwell Bay, 4S3. 

Pelham-Clinton family, 271. 

Pembroke, 382. 

Pembroke Castle, 382. 

Pembroke College, Cambridge. 246. 

Pembroke College, Oxford, 154. 

Pembroke, Earls of, 98, 392, 394. 

Pembroke Marbles, 393. 

Pembroke, Sir Richard, 50. 

Pembroke-hire, 3S2. 

Penarlh Roads, 375. 

Pen-Combick, 454. 

Penda, King, 97. 

Pendennis Castle, 454. 

Pennsylvania Castle, 421. 

Pennsylvania Suburb, Exeter, 425. 

Pennine Hills, 57. 

Penny-come-quick, 454. 

Penrhyn Castle, 37. 

Penshurst, 476, 477. 

Penshurst Church, 477. 

Pentise, Chester, 25. 

Penwith Headland, Land's End, 462. 

Penzance, 461. 

Pepys' Diary, 235. 

Pepys, Samuel, 24.X. 

Perch Rock Light. 17. 

Percies. the, 61. 270. 310, 325. 

Percy, Bishop, 95, 25S. 



Percy, Henry de, 325. 

Percy, Sir Henry, 330. 

Percy's Well, Alnwick, 328. 

Peter, Hermit, 416. 

Peterborough Cathedral, 253. 

Peterhouse. Cambridge, 240, 246. 

Petworth, 326. 

Pevensey. 484. 489. 

Peveril of the Peak, 63, 71, 74. 

Peverils, the, 267. 

Pfestiniog Vale, 48. 

Pharos, Dover, 4S7. 

Philip, Archduke, 131. 

Philip of Spain, 500. 

Philippa, Queen, 14S, 313, 319. 

Phcenix Tower, 25. 

Pickering Tor, 87. 

Pictou Castle, 383. 

Pierrepont House, Surrey, 472, 473. 

Pilchard King, 461. 

Pilchards, 459, 461. 

Pilgrim Fathers, 437. 

Pilgrim's Progress, 130. 

Pindar's House, 211, 

Pin-making, 338. 

Pistol Meadow, Lizard, 458. 

Pitt, Fort. Chatham. 4S0. 

Pitt Press. Cambridge, 246. 

Pitt, William, 3S9, 4S0. 

Put's Tomb, 1S9. 

Pixies' House, Dartmoor, 435. 

Plas Crug. 48. 

Plas Newvdd, Llangollen, 29. 

Plas Newydd, Menai Strait, 38. 

Plumbago-mine, 65. 

Plym Bridge, 436. 

Plym River, 432, 435, 438. 

Plym Steps, 435. 

Plymouth, 437, 43S. 

Plymouth Sound, 436, 43S. 

Plympton Earl. 436. 

Plympton Maurice. 437. 

Plympton Priory, 437. 

Plympton St. Mary. 436. 

Plynbmmon, Mount, 352. 

Pocket Pistol, Queen Elizabeth's, 487. 

Poets' Corner, Westminster, 1S9. 

Point Keyham, Plymouth. 43S. 

Poison Cup of Clare, 243. 

Polden Hills, Sedgemoor, 40S. 410. 

Pole, Reginald, 415, 509. 

Pole, Reginald's, tomb, Canterbury, 

482. 
Polpeor, 459. 
Pomfret Marbles, 154. 
Ponsonby, Miss, 2S. 
Pont Cysylltau, 30. 
Pontrilas Court, 369. 
Poole, 415. 
Poole Harbor, 41 5. 
Poore, Bishop, 3S6, 387. 
Pope. Alexander, 134, 140, 171, 356, 

384, 409, 470. 
Pope's Seat, 138. 
Pope's Tomb, 1 78. 
Pope, Sir Thomas, 154, 230. 
Porlock Bay, 443. 
Porlock Moor, 443. 
Port Madoc, 44. 
Port Tennant, Swansea, 379. 



INDEX. 



533 



Porthcawl, Swansea May, 370. 

Portinscale, 67. 

Portland Bill, 421. 

Portland Castle, 420. 

Portland, Countess of, 520. 

Portland, Duke of. 74, 271. 

Portland Isle, 419, 420. 

Portland Race, 421. 

Portland stone, 4iS, 420. 

Portsea, 510. 

Portsea Island, 510. 

Portsmouth, 510. 

Portsmutlie, 511. 

Post-office, Kynance, 458. 

Pottergate Tower, Alnwick, 322. 

Poultry Cross, Salisbury, 38S. 

Poultry, the, London, 208. 

Powis. Earl, 99. 

Powisland, 31. 

Powys Castle, 35. 

Pradanack Point, Cornwall, 457. 

Pratt, Chief-Justice, 475. 

Precipice of Fishes, 3S2. 

Prescot, 20. 

Prince Arthur's Tower, 99. 

Prince's Gate, Hyde Park, 206. 

Prince's Landing-Stage, 18. 

Printing-House Square, 385. 

Prior, poet, 242, 262. 

Prior Goldsmith's Gate, Canterbury, 

481. 
Prior, Richard, 322. 
Priory Church, Christchurch, 507. 
Prison, Portland, 421. 
Proctor, Sir Stephen, 293. 
Prospect, Ross, 358. 
Prudhoe Castle, 321. 
Prudhoe Tower, Alnwick, 328. 
Prynne, William, 39, 442. 
Ptolemy, 307. 

Puckaster Cove, Isle of Wight, 51S. 
Purbeck, Isle of, 415. 
Purbeck marble, 418. 
Purkis, charcoal-burner, 504. 
Parley, 170. 
Putney, 171. 

Quarr Abbky, 515. 
Queen Elizabeth's Pocket Pistol. 4S7. 
Queens' College, Cambridge, 245. 
Queen's College, Oxford, 148 
Queen's House, Lyndhurst, 502. 
Queen's Tower, Cambridge, 240. 
Quicksall Lodge, 92. 

Rack of Portland, 421. 

Radcliffe Library, Oxford, 152. 

Radcliffe, Mrs., 79. 

Radford, smuggler, 174. 

Radley, 167. 

Radnor, 353. 

Raglan Barracks, Plymouth, 438. 

Raglan Castle. 304, 454 

Raising of Lazarus, painting. 490. 

Raleigh, Lady, 414. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 190, 414, 424. 

442, 453- 5S7- 
Raleigh's Tomb, 189. 
Ralph, Bishop of Shrewsbury. 403. 404 
Ralph, son of Geremund, 88. 



Ramparts, Amesbury, 390. 
Ramsgate, 483. 

Ranmore Common, Dorking, 471. 
Raue, in. 

Ravine Tower, Alnwick, 327. 
Reading, 170. 
Reading Abbey, 171. 
Rebecca, 461. 

Red Bridge, Southampton Water, 509. 
Red Hill, Worcester, 347. 
Red Horse, the, 114. 
Red Lion Inn, Dorking, 469. 
Red Tower, York, 297. 
Redbrook, 365. 
Redburn, 226. 
Redlands Wood, 468. 
Redmoor Plain, 113. 
Redvers, Baldwin de, 509. 
Reform Club, London, 213. 
Regent Fort, Jersey, 422. 
Regnum, 494. 
Regulus, King of Man, 61. 
Reigate Castle, 473. 
Remigius, Bishop, 263. 
Rennie, John, 213. 
Reynard's Hall, 87. 
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 437. 
Rheidol River, 47, 352. 
Rhenass Waterfall, 60. 
Rhodehorn, Lyme Regis, 424. 
Rhuddlan Castle, 34. 
Ribble River, 57. 
Rich, Edmund, 16S. 
Richard Crookback, 33S. 
Richard's Castle, 100. 
Richard's greyhound, 34. 
Richard of Bury, 318. 
Richard, Prior, 322. 
Richmond Castle, 293. 
Richmond, Duke of, 495. 
Richmond, Earl of, 89, 294. 
Richmond Hill, 1 79. 
Richmond, Rev. Legh, 515. 
Ridd, Jan, 443. 
Rievaulx Abbey, 306. 
Rimmer, 480. 
Ringwood, 505, 506. 
Ripon, 314. 

Ripon, Marquis of, 2S9. 
Ripon Minster, 2S8. 
Robert, Earl of Moreton, 453. 
Robert of Ewias, 370. 
Robert of Gloucester, 341. 
Robert the Norman, 375. 
Robert the Norman's Tomb, Glouces- 
ter, 341. 
Robin Hood's Bay, 310. 
Robin Hood's Cave, 273. 
Robin Hood's Tower, Richmond, 294. 
Robsart. Amy, 123, 141. 
Iv.che End, Isle of Wight, 51S. 
Rochester, 479. 
Rochester, Earl of, 162. 
Rock of Tiw, 4 56, 
Rocket, the, 52. 
Rocking Stone, Cardiff, ^73 
Roebuck Inn, Banbury, 160. 
Roman remains, Sandwich, 486. 
Roman villa, Morton, 515. 
Roman wall, 68, 321. 



Romilly, Young, 287. 

Romney, 4S4, 488. 

Romney Marsh, 487. 

Roodee, Chester, 32. 

Rooke, Admiral, 365. 

Rookery, Dorking, 471. 

Ros, Lord, 106. 

Rosamond Clifford, 142. 

Rosamond's Bower, 142, 163. 

Rose Inn, Wokingham, 385. 

Ross, 355. 

Ross Church, 357. 

Ross, Man of, 355. 

Rother River, 488, 495. 

Rotten Row, Hyde Park, 205. 

Rougemont Castle, 426-. 

Rougemont Hill, Exeter, 425. 

Round Church, Cambridge, 248. 

Round Table, King Arthur's, 363, 501. 

Round Tower, Alnwick, 327. 

Round Tower, Windsor, 174, 175. 

Rowlstone, 371. 

Rows, Chester, 21. 

Rowsley, 75. 

Rowtor, Mount, 453. 

Royal Albert Hall, London, 207. 

Royal Clarence Victualling Yard, 

Gosport, 512. 
Royal Exchange, London, 208. 
Royal George wrecked, 511, 515. 
Royal Victoria Hospital, Southampton, 

510. 
Royal William Victualling Yard, 

Plymouth, 438. 
Royal Yacht Club, Cowes, 514. 
Rufus's Stone, New Forest, 502, 503, 

504. 
Rumbald's Moor, 285. 
Runcorn, 52. 
Runnimede, 177. 
Rupert. Prince, I 14, 1 17, 125, 274, 296, 

339- 
Rushen Castle, 60. 
Russell family, 131. 
Russell, John, 131. 
Russell, Lord, 439. 
Russell, Lord William, 133. 
Russel, Sir Thomas, 171. 
Rutland, Dukes of, 76, 80, 106, 306. 
Rutland, Earl of, killed, 282. 
Rutupiae, 4S5. 
Rydal Mount, 65. 
Ryde, 515, 516. 
Rye, 4S4, 48S. 
Rye House, 234. 

Sacheverkl, Dr., 103. 

Sackville-West, L. S., 478. 

Saffron, 236. 

Saffron Walden, 234. 

Saffron Walden Church. 230. 

St. All.an Hall, Oxford, 147. 

St. Albans, 224. 

St. Albans, battle, 229. 

St. Albans, Duke of, 238. 

St. Aldate's Church, Oxford, 155. 

St. Aldhelm's Head. 418. 

St. Andrew's Cathedral, Hexham, 322. 

St. Andrew's Spring, Wells, 402, 403. 

St. Anne's Well, Malvern, 3^2. 



534 



/.YDEX. 



St. Anthony's Chapel, Penzance, 461. 

St. Asaph, 34. 

St. Aubin Bay, 422. 

St. Aubin Village, 422. 

St. Aubyn family, 461. 

St. Augustine's Abbey, Bristol. 397. 

St. Augustine's College. Canterbury, 

4 s -' 
St. Augustine's Monastery, Canterbury. 

481- 
St. Berle, 316, 317. 
St. Bede's Shrine, Durham, 317. 

ird, M mt, Monastery, ta 1. 
St. Boniface Church, Bonchurch, 517. 
St. Briard Castle, 365 
St. Bride's Church, London, 196. 
St. Catharine's Chapel, 424. 
St. Catharine's Chapel, Guildford, 

466. 
St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, 

245. 
St. Catharine's Down, Me of Wight, 

St. Catharine s Spring, Guildford, 466. 

Si I 'atharine's Well, Southwell, 270. 

S 1 lhad, 101. 

S I ment*s Church. Sandwich, 4S5. 

St. Clement Danes Church, London, 
180 

St. Cross Hospital, Winchester, s,oo. 

St. Cuthbert, 66, 313, 314. 320. 335. 

St. Cuthbert's Banner, 319, 333. 

St. Cuthbert's Chapi I, 1 ongstone, 336. 

St. Cuthbert's Church, Wells, 402. 

St. Cuthbert's Shrine, Durham, 316. 

St. D u id's. Bishop of, 577. 

St. David's Chapel, Llanthony, ;;j. 

St, David's Head, 382. 

St. Dunstan, ; 17. 

St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, 14S. 
I Imund's Shrine, 250. 

St. Elericus, 422. 

St. Ethelbert's Shrine, Hereford ;;; 

St. Etheldreda, 251. 

rge's 1 lhapel, Windsor, 170 

St. George's Statue, York. 300. 

St. 1 iermain's 1 Ihurch, ; 

St. Holier. 422. 

St. Herbert's Island, 6 i. 

St. Hilda, 310. 

St. Hugh's Shrine. Lincoln, 264. 

St. James Palace, London, 198. 

St. James Park, London. 107. 

St. James's Statue, Alnwick, 328. 

St. John's Chapel, Chester, 25. 

St. John's Chapel, Peterborough, 254. 

St. John's Chapel. Tower of London, 
192. 

St. John's Church. Cirencester, 138. 

St. John's Church, Leeds, 285. 

St. John's College, Cambridge, 241. 

St. John's College, Oxford, 154 

St. John the Baptist Church. Glaston- 
bury, 407. 

St. Joseph's Chapel, Glastonbury, 407. 

St. Lawrence Church, 99. 

St. Lawrence Chinch, Niton, 518. 

St. Leonard's Chapel, Alnwick, 324. 

St. Leonard's Church, Hythe, 487. 

St. Margaret's Church, London, 181. 



St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, 

189 
St, Martha's Chapel, Guildford, 400 
St. Martin's Church, Birmingham, 125. 
S Martin's Church, Canterbury, 4 s -' 
St Martin's Church, Stamford, 263. 
St. Mary, Abbey, Chester, 25. 
St. Mary's Abbey, Tintern, 365. 
St. Mary's Abbey, York, 295, 296. 
St. Mary's Church, Bedgebury, 474. 
St. Mary's Church. Chester-le Street, 

}20 
St. Mary's Church. Guildford, 465. 
St. Mary's Church. Lichfield, 103 
St. Mary's Church, Oxford, 155. 
St. Mary's Church, Saffron Walden, 

236. 
St. Mary's Church. Scarborough, 308. 
St. Mary's Church, Selbome, 496, 
St. Mary's Church, Tutbury, 91. 
St. Mary's Church, Warwick, 121. 
St. Mary's College. Winchester, 500. 
St. Mary's Hall, Coventry, 105. 
St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, 147. " 
St. Mary le-Bov Church, London, 195. 
St. Mary Redefine Church, Bristol, 399. 
St. Mary'-. Square, Gloucester, 341. 
St. Mary's Templar Church, London, 

211. 
St. Mary's Well, 75. 
St. Mary Winton College, t txford, 151. 
St. M twe's Castle. 454. 
St. Michael, 454, 460. 
St. Michael's Chan, 461. 
St. Michael's Chapel, Scyrrid Vawr, 

371- 
St. Michael s ( hurch, Alnwick, 329, 
St. Michael's Church, Coventry, 105 
St. Michael's Church, Lichfield, 10;. 
St. Michael's Church, Verulam, 230. 
St. Michael's Mount, 460. 
St. Michael's Square, Southampton, 

5 lo- 
st. Milburgh, 97 

St. Nicholas Chapel. Ilfracombe, 4-|S. 

St. Nicholas Church, Arundel, 493 

St. Nicholas (.'hurch, Guildford, 465. 

St. Nicholas Church. Romney, 488 

St. Nicholas Church. Sidmouth. 424. 

St. Nicholas Hospital. Portsmouth, 511. 

St. Nicholas Mr, 438. 

St. Patrick, 407. 

St. Patrick'^ Causeway, 45. 

St. Paulinus, 295. 

St. Paul's Cathedral, iSl. 

St. Peter's Cathedral, Yoik, 20S. 

St Peter's Church, Rowlstone, 371. 

St. Peter's Church. St Ubans, 220. 

St. Peter's Church, Sandwich, 4S5. 

St. Peters Church, Tower of London. 

193- 
St. Peter's Church. Westminster, 1S4 
St. Peter's College, Cambridge, 240, 

2 li- 
St. Peter's Port, 423. 
St. Petrox Church. Dartmouth, 434. 
St. Sepulchre's Church, Cambridge, 

248. 
St. Sidwell, 428. 
St. Stephen's Church, Tunbridgc, 470. 



St. Stephen's Hall. Westminster. 2c;. 

St. Swithin's Church. London, 170. 

St. Swithin's Day. 500. 

St. Swithin's Shrine, Winchester. 499. 

St. Thomas a Becket. 44S. 4S2 

St. Thomas a Becket Church. Ports- 
mouth, 51 1. 

St. Thomas Canlelupe's Shrine. Here- 
ford, 353. 

St. Ihomas Church. Winchelsea, 489, 

St. Thomas, Exeter, 425. 

St. Vincent's Rocks, Bristol, 400. 

St. Werburgh, 89. 

St. Werburgh Cathedral. 21. 

St. Wilfrid, 512. 

St. Wilfrid's Church, Brading, 515. 

St. Wilfrid's Shrine, Ripon, 288. 

St. William. Norwich, 259. 

St. William's Shrine, York, 298. 

St. Winifrede. 35. 

St. Wulst in. 340, ;(S 

St. Wulstan's Shrine, Worcester. 34S. 

Salcombe Hill, Sidmouth, 424. 

Sal ford, ^2. 

Salisbury. 386, 413. 

Salisbury Cathedral, 386. 

Salisbury Chapel, 233. 

Salisbury, Countess of, 175. 507, 509. 

Salisbury, Karl of, 232, 2S2, 507, 
513. ' 

Salisbury, Marquis of, 230, 232. 

Salisbury Plain, 388, 

Salt-Tower, London, 102. 

Saltram Woods, Plvm River, 437. 

Saluting Battery, Dover, 487. 

Salem, architect. 320, 327. 

Sandown, s'5- 5 tic 

Sandown Bay, Isle of Wight, 516, 

s 111 1- foot Castle, 419. 

Sandwich. 4:7, 484, 4 s ;. 

Sandwich Haven, obstructions, 470. 

Saracen's Head Inn, Newark, 274. 

Saracen's Head Inn, Southwell, 270. 

Saracen's Head Inn, Ware. 234. 

Sarawak. Rajah of. 435. 

Sark, 421. 

Saium. Old, ; s 7- 389, 413. 
Saville's 'Tomb, York, 300. 
Saxenhurst, 475. 
Saxon Shore, Counl of, 4 S 4. 
Saxulf, 253. 
Saye and Sele, 1 ord, 
Scaleby Castle. 68. 
■: ough, 307. 
Scarborough, Kail of, 
Scarborough warning 
Scar burgh Castle, 307. 
Scarlet, sexton, 254. 
Scholfield, psalm singer, 284. 
Schomberg House, London, 213. 
Scilly Islands, 402. 
Sciont River. 38. 
Scotland's Hall, Richmond, 204. 
Scotland Yard, London, 198. 
S( nit. Sir Gilbert, 207. 
Scott, Sir Walter, 69. 79, 90, 123. 141 

162, 274. 316, 332. 
Scratchell's Cave, Isle of Wight, s> ; 
Scruffel Hill, 67. 
Scudamore, Earl of, 372. 



l S 8. 



520. 
108. 



INDEX. 



535 



Scyrrid Vawr, 370. 

Seathewaite, 65. 

Sedgemoor, 408, 410. 

Segontium, 38. 

Selborne, 495. 

Selsey Bill, 495. 

Selwyn, Bishop, 104. 

Selwyn, George, 217. 

Srn. He House, Cambridge, 243. 

Seneca Dying in the Balh, 262. 

Senior Wrangler, Cambridge, 243. 

Serpentine rocks, 456. 

" Seven Ages of Man." Stratford, 1 19. 

Seven Burrows, Stonehenge, 391. 

Sevenoaks, 47S. 

Severn River, 93, 337, 352. 

Seven Sisters, Fountains Dale, 291. 

Seven Springs, 137. 

Severus, death, 295. 

Seymour, Elizabeth, 326. 

Seymour, Lord of Sudeley, 139. 

Shaftesbury, 416. 

Shakespear, John, no. 

Shakespeare, William, 118, 501. 

Shakespeare Memorial. Stratford, 119. 

Shakespeare Trust, Stratford, 118. 

Shakespeare's Cliff, Dover, 487. 

Shakespeare's House, Stratford, 118. 

Shambles, York, 303. 

Shanklin, 516. 

Shanklin Chine, Isle of Wight, 516. 

Sharpham Woods, Dart River, 433. 

Sharpitor, Mount, 453. 

Shaugh, Dartmoor, 436. 

Sheaf River, 280. 

Sheep, 492. 

Sheeps Tor, Dartmoor, 435. 

Sheerness, 223. 

Sheffield, 279. 

Sheffield Castle, 281. 

Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, 153. 

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 508. 

Shenstone, 94. 

Sherborne, 413. 

Sherborne Abbey, 413. 

Sherborne Bell, 413. 

Sherborne Castle, 414. 

Sherborne Grammar School, 413. 

Sherburne, Sir Nicholas, 57. 

Sheridan, Richard B., 218. 

Shifford, 140. 

Shooter's Hill, Woolwich, 222. 

Shoreham, 347. 

Shottery, 119. 

Show Sunday, Oxford, 146. 

Shrewsbury, 93. 

Shrewsbury Castle, 93. 

Shrewsbury, Countess of, 71, 275. 

Shrewsbury, Earl of, 72, 92. 

Shrimps, 222, 483. 

Shropshire, 93. 

Shuckburgh, Sir Richard, 114. 

Sherwood Forest, 268, 270. 

Sheyne Monastery, 335. 

Sid River, 424. 

Sidbury, 424. 

Siilbuiy (iate, Worcester, 347. 

Sidford, 424. 

Sidmouth, 424. 

Sidney, Algernon, 477. 



Sidney, Mary, 477. 

Sidney, Sir Henry, 477. 

Sidney, Sir Philip, 9S, 394, 477. 

Sidney, Sir William, 477. 

Silures' land, 338. 

Simnel, 165. 

Sininel cakes, 94. 

Simon's Seat, Bolton Abbey, 286. 

Sissinghurst, 475. 

Six Chimblies, Wakefield, 283. 

Sixtus v., Bible, 243. 

Skell River, 289. 

Skiddaw Forest, 67. 

Skiddaw, Mount, 64. 

Slannings, the, 436. 

Slaughter, the, Wye River, 362. 

Slave-trade, 18. 

Sleeping Children's Tomb, 102. 

Sloane, Sii I [ans, 212. 

Slype, Oxford, 152. 

Smeaton, 439. 

Smith, Sydney, 307. 

Smugglers, the, 474. 

Smuggling, 456. 

Snaefell, Mount, 59. 

Snodengahame, 267. 

Snow Hill, Windsor, 176. 

Snowden, Mount, 38. 

Soar River, 107. 

Soho, Birmingham, 127. 

Solent, the, 506, 510, 513. 

Solway Firth, 68. 

Somers, Will, 78. 

Somerset, Duke of, 176, 326, 414,433. 

Somerset, Kail of, 414. 

Somerset House, London, 213. 

Somersetshire, 394, 40I. 

Sontiiug, 171. 

Sorrel, Mount, [08. 

South Downs, Sussex, 46S, 492. 

South Foreland Lighthouse, 4S6. 

South Kensington Museum, 207. 

South Well, Southwell, 269. 

Southampton, 509. 

Southampton Water, 501, 203, 509, 510. 

Southey, Robert, 66, 67, 399, 443, 446, 

461. 
Southey, Robert, married, 505. 
Southsea, 510. 
Southsea Castle, 511. 
Southwell, 268. 
Southwell Minster, 269. 
South-western Railway, 384. 
Sow River, 88. 
Sow and Boar, 417. 
Spa, Scarborough, 310. 
Spanish Armada, 513, 519. 
Spencer-Churchill family, 164. 
Spenser, 432, 470. 
Spit, the. Spithead, 512. 
Spithead, 510, 512, 515. 
Spread Eagle Inn, Epsom, 473. 
Stafford Castle, 88. 
Stafford, Lord, 476. 
Stafford, Marquis of, 89. 
Stafford, Thomas, 30S. 
Staffordshire, 88, 90. 
Stag-hunting, 444. 
Staines, 177. 
Stamford, 261. 



Standard, Battle of the, 306. 
Stanhi >pe, fohn, 275. 
Stanhope, Sir Thomas, 275. 
Stanley House, Chester, 23. 
Stanley, Sir Edward, 334. 
Stanleys, the, 20. 
Stanton I [an ourt, 140. 
Staplelon, Walter, 153. 
Staunton Harold, 109. 
Staunton Lacey Church, 100. 
Staunton Tower, 107. 
Steele, Richard, 382. 
Steeple Rock, ICynance, J58. 
Stephen, King, 56, 266. 
Stephens, Nathaniel, 139. 
Stephenson, George, 51, 321. 
Steyning, 492. 
Stocking knitting, 267. 
Stocks, the. 371. 
Stoke, 165. 

Stone Re. 1111, Lincoln, 265. 
Stone of Scone, 186. 

S rbow, Lincoln, 263. 

Stonehenge, 389. 

Stonehouse. 437, 438. 

Stony Cross Hill, M instead, 502. 

Stonyhurst, 57. 

Stour River, 230, 415, 480, 4S3, 485, 

506. 
Stowe, Buckingham, 134. 
Stowe, Lichfield, 101. 
Stowell Park, 138. 
Strafford, Lord, 116, 303. 
Strafford, Wentworth, Earl of, tomb, 

York, 300. 
Strand t late, Winchelsea, 489. 
Stratford-on- Avon, 118. 
Strawberry Hill, 178. 
Strid, the, 287. 
Strong, Edward, tomb, 229. 
Strutt, Jedediah, 267. 
Studland Ray, 417. 
Studland Village, 417. 
Studley Royal, 289. 
Stukeley, Dr., 275. 
Stukely, Sir Lewis, 452. 
Submarine Cable, 458. 
Sudbury. Archbishop, killed, 482. 
Sudeley Castle, 139. 
Sudwell, 269. 
Suffolk, 238. 
Suffolk, Duke of, 89. 
Suffolk, Earl of, 108, 234. 
Sugar Loaf, Abergavenny, 372. 
Sunday-school, first in England, 340. 
Sunninghill, 384. 
Sunningwell, 168. 
Surrey, Earl of, 176, 333. 
Surrey Side, 463. 
Sussex South Downs. 492. 
Sutherland, Duke of, 89. 
Sutherland, Harriet, Duchess of, 89,91 
Sutton Pool, Plymouth, 437, 438. 
Sutton, Sir Richard, 149. 
Swale River, 293. 
Swallow Fall, 43. 
Swanage, 417. 
Swanage Bay, 417. 
Swannery, Abbotsbury, 420. 
Swansea, 376. 



536 



TNDEX 



Swansea Castle, ,;7 S - 

Swam* u h, 417. 

Sweyne, 377. 

Swift, Dean, 25, 361. 

Swift, Father, |6i 

Swynford, Katharine, tomb, 265. 

Sydney Garden, Bath, J96 

Si 1, (7 1. 

Symonds, Symond, 172. 

Sj mond's Yat, 361. 

Syntax, Dr., 505. 

1 IRARD Inn. Southwark, 4 s ; 
Taff River, 375. 
Talbot Arms, Newark, -'75. 
Talbot, John, g i 
Taliesin, 4,;. 

Tamar River, 4 ;;■ 4 j8, 45 2 - 
Tame River, 90, 97. 
Tamworth, 90, 
Tankerfield, martyr, 228, 

Ian \ b» I'll. 4 s - 

raplow, 171. 
Tarquin, giant, 52. 
Tatbury, 139. 

I'.n istock Abbey, 439. 
Tavy River, 4 ;<> 

I awe River, 376, 1 ; • ||" 

1 aj lor, feremj . 382. 
Teasels, 285. 
Teddington 1 ock, 178. 
Tees Ri\ er. 311 
Teign River, 426, 4 JO, 432. 
Teignmouth, 4 |0. 
Teise K l\ er, 475. 
Temple Bar, I on. l.m. 21 1. 
Temple, Sir William, 24S. 

["enby Castle, 382. 

Tennyson, Alfred, 104, 262, 520, 521. 
Tenterden, 478. 
Tenterden Steeple, 479. 
Test River, 501). 
Tewkesbury, $42. 

f/ewk< iburj \ ibey, ; 1 ;. 
Tewkesbury Battle, ;i j 
Thackeray, W. M., 236, 339, 488. 

1 mes Ditton, 178. 
Thames Head, 1 ;; 
Thames River, 1 37, 46 ; 
Thanet Isle, 483. 

1 h • 343- 

Theulf, Bishop, 3 1 ;. 
Thistledon, 1 15. 
Thomson, 470. 
Thoresby Hall, .'70. 
Thoi ney Island, iV). 
Thornhill, Sii I imes, 164. 
Thornton, John, 300. 
Thorwaldsen's Jason, 470. 
Three Crowns Inn, 103. 

I ) ;morton, Elizabeth, 414. 

rhrydwulf, 28 ; 
Tidenham Rocks, 367. 
Tilbury Fort, 222. 
Till River, j (I. 
Tillingham River, 488. 

I'i/tii's, London^ 385. 
Tip cat, 130. 

I 111 nunc--. 453. 

Tintagel Castle, 452. 



rintern Abbey, 365. 

["intern Parva, 365. 

r/issington Spires, 87. 
Tiw, R01 V of, 1 (6 
Tom, 1 ireat, Lincoln, 26 \. 
Tom Quad, ( Ixford, 1 [6. 

["ombland, Norwich, 257 

rone River, .('-■ 

roi Hill, 1 14 

1'oiImv. 1 ji I 

Torquay, 4.;o. 431. 

Torrent \\ ill.. Dolgelly, 69, 

Torridge River, 1 }2, 4 |o 

Tostig, 295 

Totnes, 433. 

Touching for King's Evil, 349. 

lower of London, 1S0. 189. 

Iu» ei Sub-way, 193. 

Town and ('.own Quarrels, 143. 
Town Hall, Birmingham, 126. 

low,. Hall, Hull, --7 s . 

I own II ill. I eeo\ 285. 
Towton Battlefield, 296. 
Towy River, 381 

I 1 1, \ , Sn William, 1 |S. 
Trafalgar Square, 1. on. Ion, 212. 
Traitor's Gate, Tower, 190. 

treasury Building. 1 .on. Ion, 198. 

I'lclnw, 4 ;. 

Trelawney, Bishop, 429. 

Trent Rh er, 75, 100, 263, 266, 27 ; 

Trentham Hall, 89. 

Trewsbury Mead, 1 ;7. 

Triangulai Bridge, Crowland, 254. 

Tribunal, Glastonbury, 407. 

Tricengham, 89, 

Trinity Chapel, Cambridge, 240. 

Trinity 1 lhapel, I lanterbury, 4 s t. 

Trinity Church, Coventry, 105. 

I'lnntv College, ( Kioi.l, 1 5 1 
Trinity College, Cambridge, 240. 

1 iiniiv Hall, Cambi idge, 2 1 ; 
Trinity House, Hull, 277. 

I 1 ipos, i lambridge, 2 1 1. 

1 loiliy Rivei . 364. 
Trowlesworthy, 4 ;* 
Trumpington, 2 19. 
Trumpington, Miller of, 244. 

1 in k, It iai . 27 ; 
Tun Ki\ er, 470. 
Tunbridge, 475, 170. 
Tunbridge Castle, 475. 47". 
Tunbridge Wells, 4711. 
Tunstall, Bishop, 318. 
Turpin, I >i. k, 302. 
Tutbury Castle, 01. 

l'wciil River, 331, 335. 

Twelve Apostles, 87. 

1'w ickenham, 1 78. 

luo Battle Farms, 1 15. 

Twynham, 507. 
w 11,482. 

Tyne River, 520, 322. 

ryril, Walter, 50 ;. 504. 

In en, Gilbert, 323, 

I 1 \ 1 RSCROFT, 109. 
Under tin- Shadow of the Cross, s ' 7 
I nden Ml. Hi.-. Isle of Wight, 517. 
1 nderground Railway, London, 215. 



University College, Oxford, 144. 1 |S 
University Library, Cambridge, 243. 
1 Ipnoi < lastle, < Chatham, 480. 

I'lr Run, 288 

1 iiium, .).(. 

Usk River, 372, .575 

Vai.i.i CRt . Is Abri V. 20. 
Valley of Deadly Nightshade, 56. 
Win Turnip, A. In. 11. .1. 400. 4S0. 
Vanbrugh, John, 164, .;.>) 
Vandyck's Charles I., 1 20. 
\ andyck's masterpiece, 393. 
Varney, Si. Richard, 141. 
Vathtk, 396 

Wctis, ,1 2 

\ \ll.in I lead, Cornwall, 457. 

Venta Belgarum, 400. 

\ Vnli.or, 515, 518. 

Venus rising from the Bath, 470. 

\ ei River, 22;. 

\ . 1 ne Hill, Portland, 420. 

Verney, Sn Edmund, 1 15. 

Vernon, I lorothy, 78. 

Vernon, Sir George, 7.). 

Vei noii. Sir I leni j . 80 

Verulam, 22 1 

Vesci. Eustace .1.-, 324. 

Vicar of Brav, 171. 

\ 1. ,' oi Wakefield, 2S2. 

\ icai "s * )lose, Wells, 40^. 

\ 1. toi 11 1 '. .Hi 1 \ Westminster, 204, 

Victoria Park, Bath, 396, 

\ nion.i. Queen, 424, 515. 520. 

\ ictoria Regia, S5. 

\ I. [01 ... Spa, 1 10. 

Victoria rower, Westminster, 202. 

Victoria's Birthplace, 201. 

\ ictoria's < loronation, 185. 

Vii io. ia's First Court, 202. 

Victoria's Marriage, 100 

\ ., 10. \ nun .»l war, 5,1 1 

Victory, wreck, 422. 

Vignals, 99. 

Vikings' Invasion, |6l. 

Vinnej Ridge I leronry, 504. 

Vineyard, the, rewkesbury, 345. 

Virginia Water, 384 

Virgins, Wise ami Foolish, painting, 

S<'2 

\'i\ i.ui. John Henry, 379. 

Waiui \m Colli re, < Ixford, is ;. 

Wakefield, 282. 

Wakefield Town. London, 190. 

Walden, Abbey, 254. 

W.il.'s, prim >• oi. 273 

Wallingford, 170. 

Wallsend, |2i 

Walmer, 484, 486 

\V..ln hi Castle, 486 

Walm v Island, Furness, 56. 

Walpole, Horace, 133, 178, 280, 303. 

Walter, John, ;n, 

Walters, I ucy, 410. 

Waltheof, 256. 

Walton, Anno, tomb, Worcester, 348 

Walton, I.M.ik. 87, 105, too 

War ( >llii'.'. I, on. Ion, 21 ;. 

Warbeck, Pcrkin, 504. 



I Mil X. 



5 '-7 



W'ul. mil. ii, Bi In. i', _>75. 

Ware. Greal Bed of, 234 

Warehnm, 415. 

Wan enne, Eai I, 469. 

Wai rington, 51, 52. 

Warwii k < 'a: lie, 1 10 

Wai whI. Earls ..I, 1 14, [20, 577, 1 

Warwii I lli.' I. in il 1 1 '1 ;. 1 21 . 

Wai ii ick Vase, 121, 

\\ .1 1 h H I hire, 104. 

\\ .1 Ii. ihe, 2 it 16 , 

\\ .ii. Ii I ow 1 1 , Fin ne ■ . 56. 

Wall hing ' iallery, Si. Albans, 227. 

W.1I1 1 I OM ■ 1 . I h. I' 1 , 25. 

Waterford, Marq 1, ; ;i 

Watei In. 1 I ii idge, i Ion, .' 1 ; 

Wai 1 1 1 11 r . . . 1 446 

w ''.i 111 h n' 

VVaynfli te, William of, 1 1 

Wi aid "I I., ni, 474. 

Weald ..I Su 1 t, \6 1 

Wear Kr. ei . 312, 

Weary ..II Hill, ' lla tonbur} , 407, 

Web i' 1, artist, 475. 

Weddell, William, of New bj , 289. 

Wi dgewood, I" iab, 88, 

Will..'. I Abbe) ,271. 

Wetland liivei . 254, 261. 

W .11. r, Samuel, 470 

Wellington, I hike of, 193, j86 

Wi llington Statue, London, 206 

Wellington's Tomb, [8 ;. 

Well , 401, 

Well 1 < lathi 'ii.ll, 402. 

Wi I Ii Bii kner, j6i. 

Welsh Pool, 35. 

W enloi I M.I.' 1 . 96, 

Wen urn River, 256. 

We it, Benjamin, 499. 

Wi 11 ...■■ , I Ii ..I Wight, 514. 

Wot 1 ..hi , ( anterburj , 1 8 1 

W. 1 1 ...I. , W in. I.. 1. 1, 500. 

Wit I ,yn Kivcr, 445. 

W.i M.l , 351. 

w ' 1 Pier, Brighton, 491 . 
W 1: .il.in College, . .'. 

W • hull. HI. 184 

w . nun .11 1 Abbey, [84. 

We iiiiui ii 1 Bi idge, 202. 

Westmin iter, Dul e of, 22, 26, 171. 

Westmin iter Hall, 1S5, 202. 

We tiii'.i eland bin 6 1 

V'. 1 ley, John 1 

w ' .' ■ , 408. 

We I'm. I ieorgc "ml I" eph, \&g 

W . ton Zoyland 1 hurch, 410 

W.'v River, 177, 463, 41.1, 495. 

Wi , mouth, 121, 177, 419. 

Weymouth Baj , 4 19. 

Whaddon Hall, 1 js. 

Whalli v Vbbey, 57. 

W li ill.-. . R'n hard, 271. 

Wharfe River, 2X5. 

Whippingham, 514. 

Win ipei ing ' .ill. 1 1 . I II tster, 34 1. 

68 



W I.. 1 1 Iallery, St. Paul 1 

Wliiil",, [10 

Whitby Abbey, |io. 

w lni. hun li, 1,11 

v.i, - ' loth II .11. Lced 

W hile 1 1 ni Inn, Ringv nod 51 16 

Hom ■!. Whitby, ,1 

v. 1, t, II..I . Hill, 1 .. 
W 1. 11. II". I ii:,, I . ,1 1 ing, 1'.. , 
WIhi. More, 419 
W lull , Rev. Gilbert, 495 

W bite. Sir 1 1 i" 1 , 1 

W liii" I .... . 1 . London, 190. 
Whiti I. .11 ; 

Wlni. 1 Ml Bay, I I" ol Wight, 510. 
WI111. li ill, W ' liiini 1. 1 , I'/'. 

wlni.. ,1.1 byrg, .1 

Whiting, Abbot ol Clla I . 41 - ; 

W lulu, y, 164. 

Whitlingl 1 " " ;!■( 

Widemai h, Hcrefori 
Widvilc, Elizabi th, 108 110, 1 r 
1 ilc of, 507, 512. 

v\ igom ' ' i'. 

W ill.. 1 fori ' , Bi hop imuel, 520. 

W1I1.. 1 fori . . Bi hop iai :l,di ath, 47.'. 

W ill- 1 1 1 W illiam, 278, 103 

Wilderm ' mbi idge, 242. 
Wile) River, v'-.y, 19 ■ 
Wilfrid 1 1 

Will 1 :, |ohn, 516. 
Willi rsli • tie, 86. 

Willi , li ' 135. 

Willytown, 19 1 
Wilmot, I .ord, i 17. 

William III., 271, 350, 426. 

William III. landing , e, | , 
William ol Wykeh im, 500. 
William, Prince, drowned, 422. 

Willi. ni, r ni. 1 . 1 04 

Willi r mil .. I'.mii.W in. i" icr, 499 

Willi. mi 1 he ' onquei or, ". [96 
Willi, mi 1 1" ' mqui 1 . " lauding, 490. 

William llr I a. .11. 325. 

William the Norm tn ; 1 
Will. .ii . a p. 1 , 392 
Wilton ' . itle, 359, 
Wilton 1 1.." 1 
Will. In- ; 16 

W1111I11 Mm itei ,415. 

Wim heist , I'-, 1, 1 18 

Countes of, ' 
Win. he ti 1 i'i'i 
W in- he iter, Bi hop of, 411. 
Winche ti 1 I istle, 500. 
Win. he tei ' alhedral, 19 . 
Win. I. an" n Lake, 64 
Windmill , 492, .j' .7 
W indi 11 ii I' 1 '.. 1 , 140. 
Wind or ( istle, 174. 
Windsor Park, , 1 
W 111 1 uil.y, 238, I 19 
Winthu) ■ n. Admiral, 200. 
W'ni.il, the, 27. 
Wi candFooli hVirgins,painting,502. 



1 I 

e I born 1 

\\ 1 ton Mi , ia - 

Wiian ..I tin- Saxon , 1 ' 

.'. iti h ..I v. "' Mi '"lip I lill ., 406, 

Witi I" , 107 

W ni," , I 

rt Mi.... I , . 1 , 46, 

W. .1,111 11 Ala . I ; I 

j 

'"', 112, l|',, I49, 
196, ■ l6, 169 ,1 p. . 41 ; 
Wolvi - ' 

Wood, "i t ol Bath, 19 

W I, Dr., Dean ol I . • 1 ■ 

Woodman ti 1 ne, Ep iom, 472. 
Wood lock, 142, 161 
Wookc) I l"l' /Ii mil,. 1 1 ill , i"' 
.1 ,. 1 , thi , 203 

Wooh " I impel, Niton, 518. 

Woolwii li D01 kyard, 222. 
W ... 1. "i in ■ I: . , 41X. 
' Icr, 3 \6, 

W ti 147, 

Won ester < ilhi dral, 517. 

Won ' I- 1 I illegi I 1, 154. 

Won - 

Won • ' 

hire 13 n, 351 

Word worth, William, 65, 67, un), i.X.S, 
223, 2X7, ;;'., ;',', 

Worl "i" ,'- 
Wormi idge, 371. 
Wotton ' hurch, I )oi I ing, 471. 
Wotton 1 1.." ' . 47 1 . 
Wren, sir Chri tophi 1 , •*■,-•, 102, 1 1/ 
17'). 1X2. 

11, 1 hun li, 32. 

R 'l ... 

Wyi he, iln . Mali • rn, 351. 
Wye River, 7-,, 81, {52. 
Wykeham, William of, 151. 

;2I 
Wym lilt. 367. 
W . 1.1 1 1 , . 29. 
Wyntoui s Leap, 6; 
Wyili.im Abbey, 1 \2 

1 River, 520. 

\ .11 li, 506, si 3, 514. 

', 1 .1 1 1 1 1 River, 1 ; 

I ,., , I larlmooi , 432. 
." gwyth, 512. 

294, 
York, An hbi hop of, 269, 2<j5, 512. 

, 300. 
York, I ' ! of, "1, 
York, Duke of, killed, 282. 
Y.irl; Mm tcr, 298. 

hire, 278. 
', ... h • coast, ',"7. 
YrWyddgrug ,, 

Zi inks, 407. 



nil. END. 



H ,4b" 79 









*0 •-?.?•' <V 



<■ 



%^«^ 



-^ 1 























• 1*°- -> v *'VL'* o. 





o -. . . * A. <v 

^* ° / 







^ ^ °o^ 









o v 

A * ^TTT' G* % '...• A ^ ^W G* 



^ 







o V 



> 




'of 



,v 



A 







Hq. 







"oV* 










y o ° * ° . 



<- 







A^ o - « . *^ 









A 



-.\ 



.■* ^V 



* c ° " ° » <S>v. 
















i0-A 




t if 
,G o^ '<..»* 






^n 



V 




DEC 78 

N. MANCHESTER, 
INDIANA dfiQfi? 









^ 





> 



^ *•••■• ^ %. ' " • t A 



